CONVICTED (2023) | Jade O’Brien, born c. 1987, of Ack Lane, Cheadle Hulme, Stockport – left an XL bully in agony with untreated wounds to her ears.

Jade O’Brien’s six-month-old XL bully-type breed called Babyface had stitch wounds that became infected after undergoing an ear cropping procedure, which is illegal in the UK.

O’Brien said the procedure had been carried out abroad but admitted she did not take the dog to a vet for treatment.

The RSPCA first became involved when Inspector Beth Fazakerley went to a vets in Accrington, Lancashire, on September 1, 2021 to examine two dogs who had been seized by police as part of an investigation under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

One of them was Babyface who had ‘prominent scars’ from stitches after recently having her ears cropped. A staff member confirmed that when the dog arrived at the kennels two weeks before, she was suffering with open wounds to both ears.

In a witness statement Inspector Fazakerley said: “You could clearly see multiple horizontal scars and I was told that when she was seized she still had sutures that were cutting into her skin due to how inflamed and infected her ears were.”

O’Brien later told Inspector Fazakerley that the dog had been imported from the US and that she was bought with her ears already cropped.

“She informed me that she bought Babyface from America as she buys her dogs from there and she said she likes the cropped-eared look,” the inspector said. “She said she’d only had Babyface a few days and she’d bought her with her ears already cropped.”

“I asked if the dog had seen a vet and she said she didn’t want to take her as she knew she would get in trouble. But she’d asked her gardener, who breeds dogs, for help and he provided her with some antibiotics.”

O’Brien said she had administered one dose of antibiotics before the dog was seized from her home along with another female bully breed.

After being seized, Babyface was taken to a vet to have her stitches removed and she was treated with painkillers and antibiotics.

An expert vet said the wounds on each of the dog’s ear pinnas appeared to be less than a week old and were ‘severely infected’ with a ‘pus-like discharge.’

They concluded that Babyface would have been in pain for at least five days as she had not received any pain-killing medication.

O’Brien pleaded guilty to a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to a dog.

Another defendant has pleaded guilty to an animal welfare offence and will be sentenced at a later date, the RSPCA said.

O’Brien, who has a 2013 conviction for assaulting a lollipop lady, claimed in mitigation she had ‘been influenced’ and ‘has health issues’.

Babyface was taken into the care of the RSPCA’s Southport, Ormskirk and District Branch who will now find her a new home.

Speaking after the case, inspector Fazakerley said: “Ear cropping is all about image and owners who do this to their dogs or take on ownership when this procedure has already been done don’t seem to realise the repercussions for the animals in terms of how it affects their behaviour or the dreadful pain they go through.”

Sentencing | 18 month community order with 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days; £495 in costs and victim surcharge. Deprivation orders on Babyface and the other bully breed dog. Three-year ban on keeping any canines (expires March 2026).

Manchester Evening News
ITV News

Update | December 2023

O’Brien has now been sentenced to four months in prison after an XL Bully she was in charge of mauled a dog owner and killed another dog in two horrifying attacks just two weeks apart.

Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how a woman was walking her one-year-old spaniel with her two children in July 2021 when she spotted a large grey dog running down O’Brien’s driveway. O’Brien was looking after Narla for her ex-partner when the attacks took place.

The woman worried by the XL Bully grabbed her spaniel but then the dog attacked her instead. She was forced back into a hedge and was bitten with serious injuries to her arms and legs while she was left with marks that were visible six months afterwards.

In a second attack just two weeks later, the XL Bully went for a small white dog that was being walked near O’Brien’s home. The teenage girl who was walking the animal ran away as she thought Narla was going to attack her but instead she went for her dog.

Sadly the white dog had to be put down by a vet after being badly bitten and having flesh ripped from her hind legs.

O’Brien pleaded guilty to two charges of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control and one charge of using threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour.

Jonathan Condor, defending, told Manchester Magistrates’ Court that the XL Bully belonged to her former partner who was on remand in prison for allegedly assaulting her.

He claimed that the defendant was the victim of domestic abuse and had suffered a stroke but still accepted her responsibility for the attacks.

Mr Condor said that O’Brien was a “dog lover” and was upset by the attack on the teenager’s pet. She was also said to be “strongly opposed” to Narla being put down. He argued that O’Brien needed to “settle down and get a clean start”.

District judge Thomas Mitchell said he took O’Brien’s circumstances into consideration and that they had “to some extent been imposed upon” her by the ex-partner and that she was not the best person to be looking after the dog. But he jailed O’Brien for four months saying it was a serious case that required immediate custody.

O’Brien was also banned from owning a dog for five years, given a £154 victim surcharge and a destruction order was also made for the XL Bully Narla.

Mirror