A FORMER butcher from Longhope who kept more than 50 animals in ‘unimaginable’ squalor – including leaving dogs gasping for water in a pitch black, disused slaughter room – has been given a six month suspended sentence and has been banned from keeping animals for five years.

Leonard Pritchard, 63, of Dursley Cross, pleaded guilty to 13 offences of causing unnecessary suffering to animals and failing to meet their basic needs in a case that involved animals including dogs, rabbits, guinea fowl and chickens, at his farm.

Rachel Hayward, one of the RSPCA inspectors involved in the investigation, said: “I remember walking into a building that had once been used as a slaughter room where old meat hooks were still hanging on the walls.

“ It was absolutely pitch black in there, and it was definitely not the kind of place you would keep any animal.

“As I walked around I came across three dogs cowering together in a corner. We turned on a tap and immediately one of them clamped their mouth around it, desperate for water.

“It was just sad and the conditions were not only unimaginable, they were beyond comprehension.”

Rabbits were kept in hutches so dirty they were said to be engulfed by sludge and a guinea fowl and a chicken being kept together in a tiny rabbit hutch where both animals were struggling to move. One puppy found as part of the investigation had also been left with untreated parvovirus that was so bad that the sick dog had to be put to sleep on veterinary advice.

Pritchard was ordered by the court to pay £2,080 in fines and costs and was given a six month suspended sentence.

Inspector Hayward added: “We are pleased with the result at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court and hope that this serves as a lesson to people that taking on any animal is a big responsibility, both emotionally and legally.”