CONVICTED (2019) | Langley Beck, born c. 1963, or Bell Lane, Boxley, Maidstone ME14 39G – kept seven dogs and three ducks without water inside his home.
Reclusive Langley Beck is said to own 80 acres of property but kept dogs in rooms with surfaces and furniture covered in excrement. Three ducks were found in a ‘hot’ caravan where all the doors and windows were closed. It is believed they had been left without water for 12 hours and had to be euthanised.
Beck, who is believed to live alone at the bleak property in Boxley, is the last member of the area’s oldest farming family.
Medway Magistrates Court heard police and an RSPCA investigator visited his home in July 2017.
RSPCA head investigator Ellie Burtcor entered one portacabin containing four dogs and said her eyes began to water from the stench.
She said: ‘It was absolutely disgusting, my eyes were watering with the urine smell that was coming from there.
‘There was an overwhelming smell of faeces and it was very damp and stagnant.
‘There were piles of faeces everywhere, faeces scraped along the floor, rubbish boxes, there were broken china ornaments.
‘Just everything that was completely unsuitable for a dog to be running around in.’
Giving evidence, Beck said the dogs had all been fed and given water that day and he would have been able to tend to the ducks if he hadn’t been occupied with the police arriving.
When asked about his routine of cleaning the areas the dogs lived in, he remained silent.
Despite the conditions, a vet who inspected the dogs said they were healthy.
A post mortem examination of the ducks concluded that they had gone at least 12 hours without water.
One was in such a bad state it was immediately put down while the other two were euthanised later.
Beck says his family have lived in Boxley for more than 100 years, making them the longest running residents of the village.
Sentencing | 20 days of rehabilitation activities, 100 hours of unpaid work; £1,800 in costs plus an £85 victim surcharge. Banned from keeping animals for life.