Man handed 15 year animal ban after five dogs found dead at Rotherham home
The discovery was made after police visited the address last year
A Rotherham man has been given a 22-week suspended prison sentence after the decomposing bodies of five dogs were discovered at his home.
Lee Dobson, 51 and of Warris Close, has also received a 15-year ban last week at Sheffield Magistrates Court.
He admitted to charge under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 after being taken to court by the RSPCA.
The discovery came in June last year when the police visited the property after receiving reports about dead dogs being found at the home.
RSPCA Inspector Leanne Booth, who gave evidence in the case, said: “The lounge area that we were standing in was untidy and cluttered with items indicating that dogs lived here and had been inside the property."
"There was a large, well-built double dog cage in the middle of the room, it had a dirty faeces-covered bed on one side and faeces on the floor on the other side.
“The back door leading into the garden was open, directly outside the back door in a blue plastic bag was the badly decomposing body of a French bulldog named Effie.
“The body still had some skin and fur on but the internal organs had liquified. The smell was horrendous, as was the sight. The police informed me that when they had attended, this body was in the outhouse in the back with a piece of bedding.
“There was a foul odour in the property, a smell of faeces, death and a smell I associate with properties that have a large number of flies in them.”
A number of other dogs were found deceased in different areas of the property.
Dobson claimed he thought someone else was caring for the dogs and was unaware of how they had died.
He was ordered to pay £400 in costs and a £154 victim surcharge, and he cannot contest his disqualification order for ten years.
His defense cited prolonged neglect due to inadequate supervision, exacerbated by his recent recovery from two major operations. The case was framed as an offence of omission rather than intentional cruelty.
Another defendant connected to the case was sentenced earlier, receiving a 22-week suspended sentence and a lifetime ban on keeping animals.