By Thom Kennedy

Last updated at 13:23, Tuesday, 09 March 2010

Dozens of dogs were found in “horrendous” conditions by an RSPCA inspector at a Lazonby farm, a court heard.

Joseph Horn

The inspector found 67 dogs living in a filthy state on the premises of Joseph Clarence Horn, 65, at Brackenbank Farm.

Horn will be sentenced tomorrow after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to meet the needs of animals for which he was responsible before his trial was due to start in Penrith yesterday.

In June last year, officers attended his premises and they found 67 dogs, some tethered to kennels, and others segregated in cages inside a large barn which had only two windows.

One RSPCA inspector who attended the farm after concerns were raised by Eden council’s environmental health officer, described the smell of faeces in the barn as ‘overwhelming’ and the barking ‘deafening’.

When she went to count the number of dogs around the farm, she could not get down one corridor in the barn because the faeces on the floor would have spilled over the top of her boots.

In the barn, where few of the dogs had access to natural light, many animals were sat in cages with three inches of filth.

Many of the animals’ water bowls had been overturned, preventing the dogs getting access to clean drinking water.

A vet inspected the dogs over the course of a day and found that most were in good health but were covered in dirt.

Among the dogs found on 65-year-old Horn’s farm, which he initially ran for stud dogs, were Patterdale terriers, bloodhounds, dalmatians, weimaraners, akitas, jack russells and lurchers.

Defence solicitor Clive Rees said that Horn had acquired many of the animals when people wanted to get rid of them following the introduction of the hunting ban, and that he recognised that he had acquired too many.

Around 20 lurchers had been left on his property in six months preceding the RSPCA visit, Mr Rees added, and many people using his dogs for stud paid him with puppies, rather than cash.

He also said Horn had received anonymous threatening letters since he first appeared in court in connection with the charge despite the dogs’ good health, and that he cleaned them out daily but had barely begun work when the RSPCA arrived just after 10am.

Speaking after the hearing, RSPCA chief inspector Rob Melloy said: “I know some very experienced officers attended in this case, who have been in some fairly horrendous situations, and this was among the worst they have seen.

“Fortunately, these cases are fairly rare, and on this scale they are very rare. Every now and again we come across one or two dogs being kept in conditions like this, but to see 67 is just horrendous.”

He had been visited in the past by council officers, but decided not to bring his conditions up to the standard of a licensed dog breeder, meaning he could breed only four litters a year.

The hearing was adjourned to allow the presentation of pre-sentence reports, with District Judge Gerald Chalk warning that a custodial sentence was still a possibility.

However, he added that the case was one of ‘significant neglect’, rather than cruelty.

He will also decide tomorrow whether to ban Horn from keeping dogs, after Mr Rees asked that he be allowed to keep some in his farmhouse as he had before.

First published at 11:26, Tuesday, 09 March 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk