Life ban on keeping animals for Leamington woman

Buy photos » Pip the labrador has now made a full recovery after suffering an horrific neck injury which has seen her previous owner banned from keeping animals for life. (s)

A WOMAN from Leamington has been banned from keeping animals for life after her dog was left millimetres from death by an horrific neck injury.

As previously reported, Wenda Allen was found guilty on two charges of causing unnecessary suffering and failing to ensure the welfare of an animal.

The 52-year-old Buckley Road resident had pleaded not guilty, saying she had not noticed a large red wound around the neck of her eight-year-old labrador called Pip.

But Veterinary surgeon Andrew Valencia, who treated the animal in November last year, said any reasonable person would have noticed the wound, which was caused by an elastic hair band which had been placed around the dog's neck and been acting like a saw for anything up to a week. In some places the wound was an inch deep and just millimetres from her main arteries, which would have killed her had they been severed.

In court on Wednesday (May 23) Ms Allen was given an 18-month community order, ordered to pay costs of £250, banned from keeping all animals for life and Pip was also confiscated.

An RSPCA spokesperson said: “We are pleased with the sentence.

“We can now find the lovely dog a new home.”

Ms Allen, who had defended herself in court without legal representation, insisted “dogs were her life” and she “never ever hurt” any of her animals, adding she honestly thought the foul smell coming from dog had been caused by an earlier ear infection it had suffered.

But prosecutors insisted the animal's injuries had been “so gross and so obvious it would have been clear to anyone that failing to get treatment for the animal would cause it suffering.”

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