Shrewsbury man sentenced after starving eleven dogs
A Shrewsbury man who starved eleven dogs in his care has been handed a four month suspended sentence and banned from keeping animals for five years after he was prosecuted by the RSPCA.
Daryl Stock, 25, of Walford Heath, Shrewsbury was sentenced at Telford magistrates court on Wednesday 16 May having pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to eleven Newfoundland dogs between 13 September 2017 and 11 October 2017 at Woodside Farm, Shrawardine.
He was also ordered to pay £500 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.
RSPCA Inspector Nayman Dunderdale said: “This was a shocking case. What I discovered when I visited the address following a call from a concerned member of the public was very upsetting.
“There were eleven Newfoundland dogs who were so thin their ribs were showing. When I found them they were being held in three pens that had been constructed within in a stable. They had no food or water and only minimal bedding. I noticed that there was only a very minimal quantity of faeces within the pens, suggesting that the dogs had not been fed for some time.”
“In addition, when I investigated more closely, I could see that the pens were screwed shut suggesting the doors were not opened very often in order to regularly feed and water the animals.
“To test whether anyone unscrewed and opened the doors to feed the dogs overnight, I balanced a calling card on one of the pen doors in clear sight. The next morning, I returned to the address. The stable doors were screwed shut and the card was where I had left it. At that point, I asked local vet David Martin to join me at the site to look at the dogs. Having seen the condition of them, the vet advised me that the dogs were likely to suffer if their circumstances did not change. When I called the West Mercia police to the address, they approved the removal of the dogs from the property so the they could be cared for by the RSPCA.”
The eleven animals were then taken to Brownlow Vet Centre where David Martin examined and collected blood samples from each of them. He described them all as ‘emaciated’. In addition, he found that the dogs’ gastro-intestinal tracts were completely empty and most were suffering from conjunctivitis.
After being treated, the dogs went to live temporarily with foster carers. In early November, after the rescued dogs had spent around three weeks in foster care, the vet re-weighed them. All eleven had gained weight rapidly, which he said supported the view that the dogs had considerably restricted access to both food and water for a significant period of time while being kept by Stock.
Since their rescue, all eleven dogs have now reached healthy weights. They have now been adopted by dog-lovers and are living happy lives in their forever homes.
Inspector Dunderdale concluded: “We are pleased that justice has been done. The condition of the dogs was terrible. Some of them weighed around half of what a normal, healthy Newfoundland should weigh.
“We would encourage people who can no longer cope with caring for their pets to contact us for help and advice to avoid unnecessary distress and suffering being caused.”
