Emaciated dogs found in Burnley home (From Burnley and Pendle Citizen)

Emaciated dogs found in Burnley home

12:00pm Saturday 31st October 2009

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A DOG warden said the emaciated condition of two dogs found in a Burnley mother-of-three’s home was the worst she had ever seen.

Jane Grady said the two crossbred dogs, kept in a cage in Nicola Tattersall’s kitchen, were “all skin and bone”, Reedley magistrates heard.

The dog warden, who was following up a complaint from a member of the public, said she would return with an official from housing landlord Calico, the court was told.

But when she went back to Tattersall’s property in Como Avenue she refused to let the warden in, said Christopher Wyatt, prosecuting for the RSPCA.

Mrs Grady called in police and she eventually got back into the house so the dogs could be seized.

The dogs, which were curled up together in the cage, were taken to the nearby Oakmount Vets for treatment.

The warden later recalled how the dogs’ appearance was probably the worst she had seen in her long career, added Mr Wyatt.

Vet Cheryl Conway said the first dog, a tan crossbred, weighed only nine kilograms, when a healthy weight would have been 17kg. The dog also had conjunctivitis in both eyes.

The second dog weighed five kilograms when it should have weighed nearer to 10kg, added Mr Wyatt.

Both dogs were re-examined a short time later and each had made significant weight gains after being placed on a regular diet.

Tattersall, 25, now of Cleaver Street, admitted two offences of causing unnecessary suffering to the two dogs in May this year.

Magistrates banned her from keeping animals for 10 years and fined her £110 with £125 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

David Lawson, defending, said his client accepted she had probably taken on too much looking after both dogs.

The first dog belonged to her for around three years but the second had been taken in as a stray shortly before the dog warden’s intervention, he added.

Mr Lawson said that she had been trying to bathe the first dog’s eyes.

She accepted she should have given greater priority to their care.

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