Man with overweight dog given ban

Taz before and after being taken into council kennels

Taz was found to weigh 88lb (40kg), after West failed to improve his diet

A dog owner who allowed his border collie to become dangerously overweight and kept his pet in squalid conditions has been banned from keeping animals.

Ronald West, of Donald Road, Brighton, was found guilty of neglect by city magistrates at an earlier hearing.

On Tuesday, magistrates banned him from keeping animals for 12 months, told him to pay kennel costs of £1,477, and said his dog would be found a new home.

Five-year-old Taz weighed 88lb (40kg) after West failed to improve his diet.

Animal welfare officers who visited the 63-year-old's flat last December said they found dog faeces in every room.

Magistrates heard that when ex-farm worker West was interviewed, he said the dog was overweight because it had been given too many treats by him and his friends.

He also said he had been unwell with flu and unable to clean the flat or walk the dog.

He [Taz] will go to a new home and can get the care and attention he needs and that he has been deprived of for so long

Sue Watson

Officers advised West to clean the flat, exercise Taz, seek a vet's advice, and clip his pet's overgrown claws, but magistrates were told West failed to improve the animal's condition and Taz became fatter.

After the sentencing, West said: "My dog was overweight, I agree. I was going to do something about it. I'm not denying that. I never have. But that dog was never ill-treated, ever."

Maggi Hollands, animal welfare officer, said: "People always think that starving a dog is cruel.

"Overfeeding a dog and making a dog overweight, or any animal, is just as cruel.

"They suffer the same things we would - pressure on the limbs, strain on the heart, possible cancer, diabetes, everything."

And senior animal welfare officer Sue Watson added: "It's the right result for Taz.

"It means he will go to a new home and can get the care and attention he needs and that he has been deprived of for so long."