Callous dog owners banned for 10 years
A couple found with eight starving dogs in squalid conditions at their home have been banned from keeping animals for 10 years.
A couple found with eight starving dogs in squalid conditions at their home have been banned from keeping animals for 10 years.
Stephen and Helen Wain, aged 34 and 31, were also told to carry out a total of 500 hours community work after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to the animals.
District Judge Michael Morris told the pair they had narrowly avoided jail sentences because they have six children under 12. Walsall magistrates were told at a previous hearing that underweight German Shepherds Tess and Sabre and a Jack Russell named Jack were found by an RSPCA inspector in a rubbish-strewn garden with only an old saucepan filled with rainwater to drink.
Gaynor Sutton, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said that five four-week-old German Shepherd puppies were also found in a "lethargic" condition inside the home in Valley Road, Blakenall, Walsall.
The RSPCA swooped on the house on June 16 last year following a tip-off.
On a scale of one to ten, Tess was given a body score of two, emaciated Sabre a score of one and Jack a score of four. The couple admitted three counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and one count of failure to provide an adequate environment and had been warned a prison sentence could not be ruled out.
In addition to the ten-year ban, Stephen Wain was ordered to carry out 300 hours' unpaid work in the community and to pay £1,500 costs. His wife was ordered to carry out 200 hours' unpaid work and to pay £500 costs.
Mr Morris said: "It is quite plain to me that these dogs were not being looked after by you and were in need of help. Thankfully. the dogs are now out of your hands and are much better.
"I considered whether I should put you in prison, but I will not do that because of the position with your children. I am going to deal with you by way of a community order."
Nayan Patel, defending, said the couple had decorated their property and cleaned up the garden.
"It was not a deliberate act on their part, but a lapse in care. The next time the inspector visited the premises had been tidied and the garden slabbed."
Mrs Sutton said: "This is an excellent result for the RSPCA. It's nice to have a sizeable chunk of the costs requested actually ordered by the court."
