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Case ID: 18636
Classification: Hoarding
Animal: dog (non pit-bull)
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Attorneys/Judges
Prosecutor(s): Nick Sutton
Defense(s): Kalsoom Bashir




37 dogs living in squalor
Kings Norton, Birmingham, EN (UK)

Incident Date: Wednesday, Mar 23, 2011

Disposition: Dismissed (Conditional)

Person of Interest: Margaret Harthill

A dog owner who kept 37 dogs in "filthy and appalling" conditions at her dilapidated farm in Birmingham has been banned from keeping dogs for five years.

Some of the pooches at Goodrest Farm, Goodrest Lane, Kings Norton, had been kept in a foul-smelling cellar from which they had tried to escape.

Others were found tethered to short chains.

Farm owner Margaret Harthill, 64, who had previously admitted seven charges of animal cruelty, was also conditionally discharged for 12 months by city magistrates and ordered to pay £100 costs.

Nick Sutton, prosecuting, said that between 2007 and March Harthill's farm had been visited 16 times by the RSPCA.

He said there had also been visits from charity workers who offered to help Harthill, but she had "spurned" their advice.

Matters came to a head on 23 March when 15 people, including police and RSPCA officers and a vet, went to the farm for an inspection.

During the checks Harthill asked the vet if he would put all the dogs down.

Mr Sutton said this "was not consistent with someone who claimed to treat the dogs as her family".

He said the dogs were kept in makeshift wooden lean-tos, derelict cars and an outside toilet which was surrounded by a high wire fence. Mr Sutton said the ground was compacted with excrement. He said they did not have adequate bedding and went on: "Most showed a complete lack of experience of other humans. They were nervous and agoraphobic almost."

Five puppies, he said, were found in a scullery in a "slurry of filth and urine". Three of the puppies were put down because of a condition commonly found in dogs which have been inbred.

The cellar, which had no natural light, did not have any dogs in it at the time, but there was evidence of pooches kept there previously, with scratch marks on the door indicating they had tried to escape.

Others living near the farm said they had been affected too.

One farmer told how Harthill's premises had become dilapidated over the years.

He said a pack of dogs had previously escaped and attacked his horses.

Mr Sutton said some of the dogs had since been re-homed.

Kalsoom Bashir, defending, said Harthill had been left to look after the farm following the death of her parents.

She said the dogs had been fed and watered and were found, save for a few of them, in a good physical condition.

Mrs Bashir said Harthill was devastated when the animals were taken away and went on: "It is clear that the whole situation became too much for her to cope with. It was overwhelming for one person."

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