CONVICTED (2007) | animal hoarder Lee Howard, born 12 August 1966, of Shinwell Crescent, Middlesbrough TS6 6LJ – let nearly 30 animals die of thirst and starvation at a County Durham stables.
Lee Howard was charged after the RSPCA discovered animal remains at Bank Top Stables in Trimdon, County Durham, in May 2005.
Magistrates heard that 13 horses and ponies, 11 hens, four dogs, and a rabbit died of dehydration and starvation over a period of several weeks after being locked up at the stables. Three dogs survived by eating the remains of the dead animals.
In March 2006 Howard was sentenced to six months in jail and banned from keeping animals for the rest of his life.
Just a few months later Howard was back in court after it was discovered he was keeping 11 dogs and 16 birds at a house in Delarden Road, Pallister Park, Middlesbrough.
The animals were kept in squalid conditions, with the dogs running around in piles of faeces and pools of urine. Six of them had problems with their paws and one had an ear infection.
Howard was given a further six-month jail term for breaching his ban.
Sentencing: two custodial terms and a lifetime ban on keeping animals.
Lee Howard, who has used the name Lee Howard-Smith, was handed a suspended prison sentence after being caught breaching his ban. Several animals and birds were found living in squalor at his home. Howard, who since his original convictions has gone on to obtain multiple training certificates in animal care, was also working as a paid pet-sitter. He was caught out after a customer found his name and photograph on an animal cruelty website.
His address at the time of conviction was Scott Road, Kettering, North Northamptonshire.
CONVICTED (2007) | Ricardo Byfield, born c. 1980, and wife Lisa Elizabeth Harvey, born 24/02/1973, previously of Whitton Avenue West, Northolt, Ealing, but as of 2020 of St Johns House, Lytham Street, Walworth, London SE17 2PW – illegally bred pit bull terriers to use in organised dog fights.
Lisa Harvey and Ricardo Byfield kept a pack of scarred fighting dogs at their one-bedroom council property in Northolt, Ealing
Career criminal Ricardo Byfield and wife Lisa Harvey were prosecuted under the Dangerous Dog Act 1991 and the Protection of Animals Act 1911.
Following a tip-off by neighbours, police raided the couple’s house in August 2006 to rescue 26 dogs. Most were pit bulls but three Dogues de Bordeaux, a rottweiler and a Staffordshire bull terrier were also found.
The animals were found locked in cages around the one-bedroomed council home, which doubled as a dog-training gym.
The dogs were found covered in scars from vicious dog-fights and some were marked on documents as “Champion” or “Grand Champion” – meaning they had won several fights.
Police mugshot of dog fighter Ricardo Byfield
Puppies aged between two weeks and four months old were also rescued in the raid.
A makeshift treadmill which officers believe was used to exercise the dogs and build up their powerful shoulder muscles was also recovered.
Byfield admitted 19 counts of possession and breeding of dangerous dogs and Harvey admitted one charge of possession and breeding of dangerous dogs.
Chairman of the bench Jeffrey Bonn said it was clear both Byfield and Harvey had been actively involved in dog fighting and breeding dogs over a substantial period of time.
“We owe the public the right to be protected from the possibility of these animals escaping and causing harm, which we are in no doubt was a very real possibility,” he said.
An order to destroy 19 pit bull dogs, made by prosecutor Noel Watkins, was unopposed by their owners and upheld by the court.
Sentencing: six months in jail. Lifetime ban on owning or keeping dogs. Byfield was ordered to pay £500 and Harvey to pay £250.
CONVICTED (2006) | US Airforce serviceman Dustin Matthew Yandell, born 13 October 1984, at the time of offence of Mill Reef Close, Newmarket, Suffolk, and as at November 2019 of Edison in Georgia, USA – ripped his golden retriever’s throat apart with a military knife
Dog killer Dustin Yandell was discharged from the American Airforce after slashing his golden retriever’s throat with a military knife.
Yandell, from RAF Lakenheath, put his golden retriever, Goldie, in the bathtub before slitting her throat from one side to the other, causing the animal to suffer “severe pain and distress” in the moments leading up to her death.
RSPCA Chief Inspector Mark Thompson said it was one of the worst cases of animal abuse he had ever seen.
“This was a very, very serious act of premeditated, wanton cruelty,” he said.
“Mr Yandell knew what he was going to do. He took the dog upstairs on a lead, put it into the bath, sat with it for a moment and then slashed its throat.
“The animal’s suffering would have been untold in the few minutes while it was dying.”
Yandell, who served in the Iraq war as a combat medic, initially denied the offence, but later admitted killing the animal at his home in Mill Reef Close, Newmarket, in March 2005.
He said in a police interview: “I do not know what was going through my mind at the time. I put the knife in the dog’s throat, and it went from right to left.
“The next thing I remember was cleaning the bath and putting the dog in the trash bin.”
The bin containing the golden retriever was found by a Forest Heath District Council refuse collector, who was left “extremely upset and distressed” by the gruesome discovery.
Yandell admitted the killing could possibly have been carried out to get back at his wife, who had called him from America to say she would not be returning home and that he would not see their son again.
Defence solicitor, Jeremy Kendall, told the court Yandell had suffered a number of traumas, including the stillbirth of his second child in April last year.
“This was a one-off offence,” he said. “He is still a very young man who has out-of-the-blue committed this savage act.”
Mr Kendall said Yandell would undoubtedly be discharged from the USAF as a result of his conviction.
Chairman of the bench, Colin Reeve, said: “We are dealing with one very serious matter of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
“We consider this matter is so serious that no other sentencing is appropriate.”
Sentencing: 18 weeks in prison. Banned from keeping animals for life.
In January 2007 Yandell was discharged from the US Airforce. Originally from Clinton, Maryland, USA, he is currently living in Edison in Georgia and, according to his Facebook profile, is employed as a technician with Southern Plastics. He appears to have at least one dog.
CONVICTED (2005) | Rosalind Gregson, born c. 1950, originally from Silverdale, Carnforth and as of 2018 living at 1 Laister Court, Bare Lane, Morecambe LA4 6LJ – kept 271 animals in her home in appalling conditions
In an extreme case of animal hoarding Rosalind Gregson, now of Laister Court in Morecambe, kept over 270 animals at her home
Gregson originally faced 69 cruelty charges after RSPCA officers discovered 246 dogs, 16 birds, five cats, two kittens, a rabbit and a chinchilla when they raided her detached cottage in September 2003.
She admitted nine charges of causing unnecessary suffering to two Yorkshire terriers, three Shih Tzus, a Bichon Frise, an Old English sheepdog, and two Lhasa Apsos. Five of them had to be put to sleep to end their suffering.
A district judge at Preston magistrates’ court heard that when the RSPCA team raided Gregson’s £500,000 detached house at Silverdale, near Carnforth, Lancs, they were initially “overwhelmed” by the stench of ammonia and faeces. They found the animals living in virtually unlit, rat-infested rooms with little water and food. Most of the water they did have was contaminated with cat litter.
District judge Peter Ward was shown an RSPCA video which showed officers viewing the “dismal and depressing conditions”. The camera pans from cage to cage, showing dogs barely able to sit up. One RSPCA officer is heard to say: “How can they live in this? This is appalling.”
Some of the dogs are lifted out of their cages and held up in view of the camera. One, a Maltese terrier, is shown with her fur matted with what appears to be excrement. An officer says: “She’s in a terrible state.”
Another, a Shih-tzu, has matted fur and appears emaciated. Its weakness and reluctance to stand is attributed by a vet to the muscle wasting in its hind legs. The animal was later put down.
An emaciated Yorkshire terrier had a discharge coming from both eyes. Few of its teeth remained, its nails were overgrown and it had a severe skin infection. It, too, had to be put down.
Tim Bergin, prosecuting, said: “It is not the prosecution case that she maliciously caused cruelty to the animals in her home; simply that she allowed her obsession to collect animals to overwhelm her.”
Gregson initially denied 49 counts of failing to provide the animals with necessary care and attention but later changed her plea and admitted nine counts of causing them unreasonable suffering.
Gregson’s lawyer told the court her client’s obsessive animal collecting began when her son died from a drug overdose 15 years earlier. She said: “This is wholly about a tragic set of circumstances. It’s about sadness, it’s about isolation, it’s about the loss of a child, it’s about despair, it’s about obsession. The list just goes on and on.”
Asked why there were so many animals in the house, Gregson told police: “Because it got out of hand, its just an obsession, I couldn’t stop.”
RSPCA Inspector Sarah Hayland said the scene she found was beyond belief.
“It’s a normal looking property from the outside — and then to be faced with the room full of dogs.
“And we had no idea how many animals were in there, right until the second day when we’d been in all the rooms.
“It’s just the enormity of it, the amount of animals involved is something that I’ve never come across before and hope never to again”.
Sentencing: Jailed for three months – later altered to a three year Community Rehabilitation Order. Disqualified from keeping animals for life.
CONVICTED (2005) | Karen Fox, born 31/05/1964, and as at November 2019 of 24 Haslam Grove, Shipley BD18 1PQ – tortured a six-week-old puppy before strangling him
Karen Fox has a history of sadistic animal abuse
Bradford magistrates heard Karen Fox had also committed “evil” and “sickening” acts of cruelty against other animals in the past. They told Fox it was their duty to jail her.
Fox had admitted strangling to death the six-week-old Jack Russell puppy the day after she had bought him as a birthday present for her young daughter.
She wept uncontrollably as she was imprisoned for 60 days and was led away in hysterics.
The court was told Fox, who pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty, suffered from depression. Magistrates were urged by her solicitor not to jail her.
However, bench chairman Granville Dobson, passing sentence after reading a pre-sentence report, said: “You have harmed animals in the past in the most appalling fashion. The reports we have just read are beyond belief. The acts of evil described in them are sickening.
“This bench would not be filling its duty if it did not treat these offences extremely seriously.”
The court was told how Fox had killed the puppy the day after she had bought him for her daughter’s birthday. Nigel Monaghan, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said Fox had bought the dog for £150 but attacked him when she could not get to sleep because of his crying.
It was alleged that sadistic Fox tortured the puppy before finally killing him by strangulation.
The court heard how the puppy’s body was found wrapped in a blood-stained towel by a neighbour who tried to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
The RSPCA was called and Mr Monaghan said that when questioned Fox fully admitted what she had done.
Fox, then of Sutton Avenue, Swain House, Bradford, told the RSPCA: “It was whining and yelping. I picked it up and strangled it. I stopped when it had gone limp.”
Arshad Mahmood, mitigating, had urged the magistrates to impose a community penalty.
He said Fox, who had no previous convictions, suffered from a mental health condition known as emotional unstable personality disorder which makes her feel down all the time.
He said she had suffered from the condition since she was 15 and had twice tried to take her own life when she was aged 17.
Mr Mahmood told the magistrates that Fox was devastated by her actions but had been feeling extremely unwell at the time of the offence in August 2004 and has since been receiving treatment at Lynfield Mount Hospital in Bradford.
The court heard that Fox had been receiving hate mail since the court case began and that her 12-year-old daughter had been bullied at school as a result of the incident.
An RSPCA spokesman said: “This sentence is a significant indication that the court took this offence extremely seriously.
“It was a tragic and horrible incident but also an act of cruelty. This is not acceptable and clearly the court took that view as well.
“This type of cruelty to animals is very rare.
“The majority of cases dealt with by the RSPCA are people who have failed to do something for their animal.
“Instances of actual physical attacks on animals are in a minority although they are on the increase which is a worrying concern.”
Sentencing: jailed for 60 days. Banned from having custody of any animal for the rest of her life.
CONVICTED (2005) | Derek Thomas Monkton, born c. 1943 (deceased as of December 2021*), of 49 Broad Street, Bromsgrove B61 8LL – kept three ponies in diabolical conditions.
Monkton pleaded guilty to charges of causing unnecessary suffering to the ponies.
The neglect suffered by the three young colts was so bad it resulted in one having to be put down because of the irreparable damage done by the growing tendons on his legs.
Chief Field Officer at the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH) Paul Teasdale, speaking after the court hearing, said he had visited a property at Upton Warren on July 1, 2003.
“I visited this property with an RSPCA inspector, Simon Dix, and found three colts, virtually imprisoned, in filthy conditions, in tiny pens.
“The conditions these ponies were kept in was diabolical, filthy and disgusting,” he added.
The barn the ponies were kept in was described as ‘dark, airless and acrid with the smell of ammonia and droppings.’
“Their hooves had clearly not been trimmed for over 12 months, they were the worst feet I have ever seen,” said Mr Teasdale.
The other two ponies have been left unrideable because of their distorted lower limbs.
Monkton agreed to sign the ponies over to the ILPH and they were taken to the Glenda Spooner Farm, at Hoarwithy, in Herefordshire.
No evidence was brought against Victoria Jean Manns, of the same address, who was also charged with the same offence.
Sentencing: concurrent seven-week custodial sentence. Banned from keeping domestic animals for life.
CONVICTED (2004) | Andrew Brian Gough, born 05/03/1976, formerly of Tiryberth Street, Tiryberth, near Caerphilly, and as of late 2019 of Lloyd Street, Newport NP19 0JN – used a captive bolt pistol to shoot a former racing greyhound in the skull, cut off the dog’s ears, and dumped him, still alive, on a footpath
Andrew Gough
Andrew Gough was paid £10 by John Hurley and Mark Emmett, owner and trainer respectively of injured greyhound Rusty, also known as Last Hope.
Gough used a captive bolt pistol to shoot Rusty in the skull. This left a gaping hole but failed to kill him. He then cut off Rusty’s ears to prevent identification and dumped him, still alive, by a footpath on Fochriw Mountain, near Merthyr Tydfil.
A woman out walking her dog heard whimpering and discovered the stricken greyhound. Despite his appalling injuries, Rusty managed to wag his tail for the person who had come to his aid. He was taken to a vet but had to be put down immediately because he was so distressed.
Rusty had a distinctive white blaze on his chest and people came forward to identify him.
In December 2004 Gough was convicted of cruelty and jailed for six months. He was also banned from keeping animals for life.
Rusty’s former owner and trainer did not face any charges despite signing the dog’s death warrant since it is not illegal for a person to arrange to have their own dog shot.
CONVICTED (2001) | dogfighting ring members with a twisted obsession for animal cruelty Kenneth Charles Langan, born 12/03/1968, of 277 Valley Road, Portslade, Brighton BN41 2TH, Jeremy Peter Brown, born 11/09/1954, of 4 Tennyson Street, Chesterfield S42 5TY, John Anthony Mullen, born 07/09/1957, of 8 Tarragon Gardens, Northfield, Birmingham B31 5HU and Ryan Nuttall, born c. 1971, of 129 Garden Terrace, Newstead Village, Nottingham NG15 0BX
2019 photo of Ryan Nuttall from Newstead Village, Nottingham
The men pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to animals, failing to provide veterinary care, and providing premises for dog-fighting.
Ryan Nuttall pleaded guilty to 11 charges, while Mullen, Langan and Brown denied some of the lesser charges which included being present at an illegal dog fight.
All four were caught after undercover journalists bought a pit bull terrier and tricked their way into the gang by pretending to be interested in their animal fighting
Sentencing the defendants, District Judge Peter Nuttall said: “To any right-thinking member of the public, dog-fighting, and everything which goes with it, is offensive.
“These were dogs which were used to fighting and they were bred for that.”
He added that a large amount of dog-fighting literature, equipment and cartoons depicting dog-fighting found at the defendants’ addresses showed “an unhealthy obsession” with the practice.
Langan, Nuttall and Brown were sentenced to four months in prison, while Mullen received a three-month custodial sentence.
Paul King, prosecuting, had told the court how seven pit bull-type dogs seized by the RSPCA had suffered hundreds of cuts, puncture wounds and injuries – none of which had been treated by a vet.
The dogfighting ring had conducted fights at two hidden pits at Chesterfield and Newstead in the Mansfield area of Nottinghamshire.
The outcome was hailed by the RSPCA, whose special operations unit had brought the prosecution, as a “fantastic result”.
Speaking after the case RSPCA Chief Inspector Mike Butcher said: “I think this sends a clear message to the public and to other dog-fighters that if they are caught they will go to prison.
“Dog-fighting is a bloody, cruel and brutal sport carried out by people with a perverse sense of pride in their animals.
“Three of the dogs taken in this case had deep scarring and wounds to the face and chest.
“This sentence is a fantastic result for everyone involved, and to have these men taken out of the picture really strikes a blow against animal abusers.”
But despite the victory the RSPCA are concerned that the full picture of dog-fighting in the UK – banned in 1835 – is unknown.
Mr Butcher said: “I have been working to beat these kinds of people for more than 15 years and it is getting harder and harder to catch them.”
Another spokesperson from the animal welfare organisation echoed his fears, saying the illicit nature of dog-fighting meant “most of the time it is very difficult to know where it is being carried out, and the extent of the problem is difficult to assess”.
Sentencing: custodial. All four men were banned from keeping animals for life.
