Bradford puppy farm dumped dead dogs in wheelbarrow
- Published
John Wilcock and Bernadette Nunney were sentenced at Leeds Magistrates' Court
A puppy farm selling dogs for £300 was keeping the animals in squalor and dumping dead ones in a wheelbarrow, a court has heard.
Bernadette Nunney and John Wilcock advertised their puppies as being raised in a family home.
But the dogs were severely malnourished and ill from being kept in their own filth with no food at a Bradford farm.
Nunney and Wilcock were given 20-week suspended prison sentences and banned from keeping dogs for life.
Customers complained to the RSPCA after several of the puppies died days after being bought.
The charity and police seized 43 dogs when they raided the farm on Tyersal Lane last September.
The RSPCA filmed the conditions and have also released images of the dead puppies in a wheelbarrow (pictured below), which some people might find distressing.
One of the dogs in the pile of carcasses was actually alive but later died from the parvovirus vomiting bug.
The trial was shown RSPCA footage of the puppies at the farm
RSPCA inspector Emma Ellis said: "What I saw that day will stay with me forever.
"The sight of the live puppy buried within the pile of dead puppies was heartbreaking. There was nothing we could do to save her.
"The way those puppies were left to die highlights how these people simply see them as commodities which I find totally unacceptable.
"Dozens of dogs were being kept at the address in stables and kennel blocks.
"Many had no food, no water, no bedding, and all of them were living in their own filth."
The RSPCA said one of the dogs in a barrow of bodies was still alive
Nunney, 25, of Tyersal Lane, was found guilty of six charges while Wilcock, 36, of Sticker Lane, Bradford, admitted five cruelty offences on the opening day of their trial at Leeds Magistrates' Court.
Magistrates found Nunney guilty of four charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and two of failing to ensure the needs of animals for which she was responsible.
Both were sentenced to 20 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months and were each banned from keeping dogs for life.
Nunney was handed a 12 week curfew order, ordered to complete a 15-day rehabilitation activity and ordered to pay £500 in costs.
Wilcock was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and a 20-day rehabilitation activity. He was also ordered to pay £100 in costs.