A DOG owner was spared prison yesterday after he left his pet to starve to death.

Magistrates heard how the rottweiler dog was so emaciated it could barely stand up when RSPCA inspectors were called to a house in South Church, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, in September last year.

It had been locked in a dining room at the house without food or water for weeks, despite the fact there was tinned dog food in the kitchen.

Yesterday, Carl Frederick Robson, 34, of Princes Street, Bishop Auckland, was given an 18-month community rehabilitation order and banned from keeping animals for life when he appeared at Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 towards court costs.

Magistrates said he could easily have been jailed because the case was so severe.

Magistrates' chairman Brian Avery said: "This is probably one of the most appalling cases we have had to deal with here. The suffering of that dog was absolutely horrendous.''

Kevin Campbell, for the RSPCA, told how vets tried to save the dog, and that it was too weak to eat without help.

Zena Smith, on behalf of Robson, said he was ashamed of what he had done, but was suffering from severe depression and was in no state to look after himself, let alone an animal. She said he had twice attempted suicide.

She said: "He has had a horrific time. He was not giving thought to anything else other than the state he was in and trying to get out of it. He certainly was not considering his dog. He was not thinking in the way a normal, rational person would at the time. He has admitted everything."

Mr Avery said: "We are giving you a chance to sort your life out. Make no mistake, you must comply with whatever the Probation Service and whatever the medical health service say, otherwise you will be back in this court and it will mean custody.''

Afterwards, RSPCA inspector Gavin Butterfield said: "Bearing in mind the defendant's personal circumstances, he was probably given quite a just sentence.

"He can never harm another animal as long as he lives."