CONVICTED (2023) | Brian John Farmer, born c. 1999, of 16 Church Street, Nairn IV12 4AP – left a dog to starve to death in an abandoned property.
Farmer pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an 18-month-old American bully/Staffy crossbreed called Duke by failing to provide him with access to food or water whereby he starved to death. He also admitted abandoning the dog.
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told the court that industrial cleaners appointed by Highland Council to attend the abandoned property discovered the dog’s skeletal and decomposing remains.
The Scottish SPCA were contacted and arranged to pick up the dog from the locus. SSPCA chief inspector Iain Allan described the scene of horror that confronted the team.
He said: “On entering, the first thing we noticed was the terrible state of the property, which was filthy with a strong, foul-smelling odour.
“There was a lot of rubbish covering the floor consisting of empty food packets, empty chewed food tins, chewed foam from the sofa and dog faeces. The room was cold as there had been no heating on within the premises for some time.
“We were shocked to see the emaciated body of a large dog in the kitchen/living room area.
“It was obvious from the state of decay of the carcass that the dog had been dead for some time. The dog was lying stretched out on the linoleum floor in front of the chewed up sofa.
“We were able to identify the dog as Duke, a one-and-a-half-year-old American XL bully cross Staffordshire bull terrier type dog.”
Duke’s body was taken for a post mortem where the vet determined the cause of death as severe malnutrition. Weighing just 14 kilograms, his skeleton protruded through his skin and his head was described as appearing too big for his body.
Decomposition suggested he had been dead for several weeks.
Defence solicitor David Patterson said that Duke had been left in his client’s care but claimed he didn’t own the dog.
In mitigation he described Farmer’s life as “challenging” adding that “a lack of education and social development” had caused him to suffer from mental health issues.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank told Farmer that due to his personal circumstances combined with the fact that he was under 25 and had never been in prison before, he enjoyed the protection of the law if there was an alternative to custody. Instead he imposed a community sentence.
Sentencing | community sentence of 250 hours of unpaid work; two years of social work supervision. Lifetime ban on ever keeping an animal.
Scum won’t have no luck for what he did.
Agreed!
No excuses for what he did , it’s time filth like him are banged up and while in prison not feed or watered for a few weeks , see how the fat ******* likes that . He looks like he needs to lose a few stone anyway.
Evil and callous, I loathe that mental health is used as an excuse for this.
By looks of him he knows how to feed and water himself.
Poor dog, did no one hear it barking? And realize owner not there. So evil and unnecessary. Makes me sick.