CONVICTED (2016) | Tracey Tindall, born 31/08/1969, previously of Lymington Drive, Holme Wood, Bradford and more recently Birkby Haven, Buttershaw, Bradford BD6 2AG – starved cats and dogs and kept them in appalling conditions.

Horrified RSPCA officers discovered the bodies of dead and decomposing pets at Tindall’s home, in what prosecutors described as one of the “most serious” cases of animal neglect they had ever seen.

A “significant number” of the animals found had died and were decomposing – while the neglect of the surviving animals led them to be in a “poor state”.

Prosecuting for the RSPCA, Andrew Davidson said officers had attended Tindall’s home, where there was faeces on her windows and the path leading to her back garden and rubbish strewn throughout her home.

Mr Davidson said: “At the right hand side of the house, RSPCA Inspectors Evans and Weston found a two tier rabbit hutch.

“On the bottom tier were the bodies of two rabbits decomposing.

“They then went through a metal gate at the side of the house which led to the back garden. The path was covered in rubbish and faeces.

“In a kennel in the back garden was the body of a large Mastiff dog that was chained to the kennel by its neck.

“It was also in a state of decomposition.

“The officers then looked through the dining room window and saw a ginger cat that was in a very poor condition.”

The inspectors recovered a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a collie that were both in very poor bodily conditions with sunken stomachs.

Mr Davidson said: “When the inspectors went into the living room, the floor was covered in faeces. There was no water present for the animals.

“When they went into the dining room, under the table was the body of a black cat which appeared to have recently died.

“In a cage they found a bearded dragon which appeared to be lifeless and had no light or water.

“In the dining area, the inspectors saw four puppy training crates. The right hand crate had the decomposing bodies of two puppies.

“Miss Tindall said the puppies had been in the crates for a couple of weeks to stop they chewing or wrecking the place.

“In the left hand crate there was the carcass of an adult collie.”

Mr Davidson told the court this was long-term neglect of the most serious type.

He said: “These animals suffered for a long time because of the deprivation of food and the conditions they were kept in.

“There were far too many animals to be looked after in a property of this size.”

The court heard in mitigation that Tindall had alcohol, depression and anxiety issues and was struggling to cope with her ill mother.

Tindall pleaded guilty to 11 charges of failing to meet animal needs and nine of causing unnecessary suffering and was jailed for 18 weeks. She was also banned from keeping any animals for 20 years, and told she would be unable to appeal the decision for at least five years. She later appealed unsuccessfully against the jail term.

After the case, RSPCA Inspector Rachel Evans said she had never faced such horrors in 12 years.

She said: “This was a truly disturbing and upsetting case. We found two decomposing rabbits and one decomposing emaciated Mastif type dog outside the property. This was a hint of the horrors that awaited us inside.”

Insp Evans said they found three emaciated dogs, four barely alive cats and a barely alive bearded dragon inside the property.

“We found the decomposing remains of a further eight cats and dogs and the body parts of an unknown number of cats that had been eaten by the remaining animals in a desperate attempt to stay alive.”

Insp Evans added: “Three of the bodies found in the property were of young puppies. They had been confined to a training crate in the kitchen, without access to food and water, and had been left to die. The mother to the puppies, Heidi, was one of the surviving dogs. The fact that Heidi will have watched and heard her puppies slowly and painfully pass away in a metal training crate, without being able to access them, must have caused her unimaginable heartache and stress. That thought and image will remain with me for a very long time.”

Sentence: jailed for 18 weeks for 20 offences; £300 costs and £80 surcharge. Disqualified from keeping animals for 20 years. Deprivation order on two cats and five kittens still in her possession.

Yorkshire Post
Telegraph & Argus

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Update June 2020

We are advised that Tracey Tindall now goes by the name Stacey-Leigh Lapping Firth.