Animal Abuse Cases - Details

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Over 40 reptiles and birds in appalling conditions - (Cambridgeshire, EN - UK)

Crime Date: 03/00/2004
Case Status: Convicted

Case Report

A husband and wife who kept more than 40 reptiles and birds in appalling conditions were jailed. Janice and Eric Dowers, of Cambridgeshire, were also banned from keeping animals for life.

The two, who admitted 24 charges of causing unnecessary suffering to 41 animals, were jailed for 35 days.

Wisbech magistrates heard RSPCA inspectors also found 80 dead exotic animals in an old freezer and floating in tanks of putrid water.

The couple also admitted keeping a kestrel confined in a cage of insufficient height.

When inspectors, reptile specialists and police went to the Dowers' home they found the 41 live animals living in horrific conditions in the house and the garden.

They included four tortoises, five turtles, a hawk, two rat snakes, a false water cobra, an albino Burmese python, two eagle owls, a female kestrel, two rabbits, four chickens, 10 "fancy" domestic poultry and seven domestic ducks.

Inspector Dean Astill-Dunseith, the RSPCA exotic animal coordinator, said: "In general the conditions in which these animals were kept were the worst I have ever seen." There was allegedly no water, food or climate control devices.

Mr Taylor said the inspectors also found a fridge freezer, which was switched off, containing carrier bags and plastic containers of dead animals.

Jailing them, magistrate Penny Kingham said they had taken into account the number of animals involved, the fact that they were in a totally unsuitable environment and the long period of time they had been neglected.

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