8:30am Tuesday 22nd December 2009
By Dani Webb
A FARM owner and his employee have avoided jail despite causing unnecessary suffering to 144 dogs.
Paul Nigel Brown, of Lawton Road, Redcar, east Cleveland, and Marc Ian Young, of Hawthorn Terrace, in Bishop Middleham, County Durham, were each handed an eight week jail term, suspended for one year, and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work when they appeared before Teesside Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
RSPCA inspectors discovered the starving dogs in cramped and filthy conditions when they visited Bog Hall Farm, in Mordon, near Sedgefield, in April last year.
A total of 144 flea-ridden dogs were found living among their own faeces in an unsuitable collection of pens, cages, barns, vans and trucks.
Brown, 56, who rented the farm at the time, admitted a number of offences relating to the Animal Welfare Act 2006 at a previous hearing. He has been disqualified from owning animals for ten years.
Young, 29, who has been banned from keeping animals for five years, was convicted of similar offences at a trial last month.
The offences included: ● Failing to give 102 dogs a wholesome diet; ● Failing to provide necessary care for 144 dogs with flea and lice infestation; ● Failing to give veterinary care to 26 dogs suffering from severe dental disease; ● Failing to treat infected wounds on eight dogs; ● Failing to obtain veterinary treatment for a dog with a fractured leg.
Both men have been ordered to pay £260, despite the case costing nearly £60,000.
John Elwood, for the RSPCA, said there had been a period of “prolonged negligence”.
He said: “They (the dogs) were being kept in filthy, cramp conditions and it smelt foul.”
Simon Walker, defending both Brown and Young, said: “Both of them are going to have to live with the events of April 2008. They are both of previously good character but this punishment is going to be lifelong.
“Mr Brown has mental health issues and had been trying to please everyone involved.
“This has had a profound effect on Mr Young. He has never been in trouble in his life. He is an animal lover and owns a dog and two cats, which are well looked after.”
District Judge Simon Hickey told Brown: “This was prolonged neglect over a period of eight weeks. There must have been commercial motivation.
“You have to face up to the consequences of these animals suffering.”
He told Young: “I don’t accept the defence of only doing what you were told to do.”
Speaking after the hearing, RSPCA inspector Lucy Hoehne said: “We are happy with the sentences and happy they won’t be able to keep dogs for a number of years.”
■ The current tenants of Bog Hall Farm have no connection to this case.
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