CONVICTED (2016) | Anne Allport of Linthorpe Rd, Middlesbrough TS1 – left a 15-year-old dog to starve inside her filthy home
Allport’s pet dog Poppy was a “bag of bones” when police found her at death’s door, huddled in a flea-ridden blanket in a property caked in faeces and urine.
Blind, starved and barely even able to stand, the 15-year-old terrier had to be put to sleep by vets.
RSPCA inspector Ian Smith said: “It is really rather depressing for anybody in this day and age to allow a dog to get into this state and do nothing about it.”
Police only discovered the suffering by chance after neighbours reported a disturbance at Allport’s property.
Officers found Poppy, as well as a cat named Jasper, in the “disgusting” home, with the ginger short-haired feline’s skin “crusty and flea bitten”.
When interviewed by police, Allport refused to answer questions.
But she later pleaded guilty to four charges, including causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
Unemployed Allport was spared jail after the court heard she had suffered from depression since she was a teenager.
Sentence: 16 weeks in jail, suspended for one year. Lifetime ban on keeping animals.