Case Report

A Bath couple has been banned for life from having custody of all animals and sentenced to 240 hours community service for causing unnecessary suffering to 23 dogs.

Rodney Reed, 53, and Susan Harper, 57, from Paulton near Bath pleaded guilty at Wells Magistrates' Court. Both were ordered to pay �500 costs.

23 dogs were discovered  living in barns at Chewton Mendip in Somerset. Ten sloughis, also known as Arabian whippets, were found in semi-darkness in a loosebox. They were standing in around 12 inches of faeces and had no dry area to lie down.

Ten small dogs were locked in cramped cages standing on compacted newspaper bedding and excrement. Two more sloughis were kept in a chicken shed, and another in a faeces-filled travelling cage, without room to move. None of the dogs had water or food and rats were running around the rubbish-strewn area.

Some of the dogs were thin, others had matted hair, skin and ear infections and dental problems. A vet estimated the dogs had been living in squalor for several months.

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