A MAN who bit the tails off three puppies minutes after they were born started a six-month prison sentence yesterday.

As Barry Stuart Knight, 28, was led away from a County Durham court in handcuffs, veterinary experts renewed their call for a total ban on the docking of dogs tails.

Knight, of White Hurworth Farm, Wingate, County Durham, pleaded not guilty to using his teeth to dock the tails of the litter of puppies, at a hearing at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court, earlier this month.

He was found guilty and magistrates sitting at Sedgefield Borough Magistrates' Court yesterday said they had no choice but to send him to prison.

Knight has appealed against the sentence. His solicitor, Alison Banks, applied for bail until the appeal could be heard but was turned down because magistrates felt the case was so serious.

The court heard that Knight admitted to RSPCA inspectors, who discovered the animals at the farm owned by Knight's parents last August, that he had bitten the tails off Lakeland Terrier Cross puppies moments after they were born.

Knight also admitted to officers that he kept an animal while disqualified.

He later retracted both statements, saying they were made "off-the-cuff". Knight went on to deny causing unnecessary suffering to the puppies, carrying out a surgical procedure without being registered as a vet and carrying out an operation without due care and humanity. He also denied owning the puppies and their mother.

Magistrates were told that in 2001, Knight was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a terrier dog after failing to seek veterinary treatment for the animal who had a broken leg and breathing difficulties because its muzzle was dislocated. He denied owning that dog.

Last night the British Veterinary Association renewed its calls for a total ban on the docking of dog tails for cosmetic purposes.