Animal collectors banned for life

A civil servant kept 74 animals in a three-bedroom farmhouse she shared with her brother and sister, a court has heard.

Valerie Archer, 51, of Emneth, Norfolk, was told by magistrates on Monday she would have to give up the majority of the animals.

She was also disqualified from keeping any animals for life with the exception of one dog, one horse and one pair of caged birds.

At King's Lynn magistrate's court she, her brother Alan Archer, 59, and sister Violet, 66, admitted 13 identical charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

Infested with mice

Michael Taylor, prosecuting, told magistrates RSPCA inspectors called at the Archers farm in March 2003 and found 44 dogs, 19 rabbits, a chinchilla, a cat, a guinea pig, five budgerigars, two cockatiels, and a canary.

They also found a dead cat which had apparently been mauled to death by hungry dogs.

The court heard that the bedrooms at the farmhouse were also infested with mice.

Magistrates were told many of the dogs were malnourished and underweight and some of the rabbits, kept in hutches in a back room, were diseased and had to be put down.

Burglary fears

David Chapple, for the Archers, said the family were animal lovers who had found themselves in a situation that they could not control.

He said: "These are animal lovers whose enthusiasm for trying to look after their animals at home led to them getting out of their depth, overwhelmed.

"These were a family who loved their animals."

He said one of the reasons the Archers kept so many dogs was because they were afraid of being burgled.

The RSPCA said the case had cost it £30,000 - mainly made up of the cost of boarding the Archers dogs.

The Archers were ordered to pay a total of £2,300 towards the cost.

Magistrate David Whitmore told them: "We feel that you are not capable of looking after animals properly."