Dogsey

A retired vet kept his collies in such disgusting squalor that when police opened his front door they barely recognised the animals as dogs and almost vomited.

Officers from the police and RSPCA were forced to put on gas masks as they entered the house owned by Charles John Spicer to rescue two collies called Puppy and Little Boy.

They had been called to the house after neighbours raised concern and when they were unable to raise the 72-year-old, they used fire brigade ladders to look into an upstairs window.

When they finally entered the property piled high with rubbish and the dogs lying on a fifthly.

They then discovered Puppy under bags of rubbish with so little hair, she was barely recognisable as a dog.

When vets checked the dog it was found that she had three slipped discs, a ruptured cruciate ligament and a skin condition so bad, she had to be put down shortly after.

The second dog, Little Boy, was found to be suffering from severe mange, a parasitic disease caused by mites.

Yesterday at Shrewsbury Magistrates Court, Spicer was found guilty of two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and one of not providing veterinary attention to an animal.

He was banned from keeping animals for ten years.