Meet prolific puppy greeders Emily May Sutcliffe, born January 1996, of 80 Coastal Road, Hest Bank, Lancaster LA2 6HQ but with links to Howden-le-Wear, County Durham, and Jack Terence Reay, born 28 July 1993, of 60 Lancaster Road, Overtown, Morecambe LA3 3EZ. They are English gypsies.
Until recently both were licensed dog breeders with Lancaster City Council
What do we know about them?
Emily Sutcliffe, previously known as Emily Hamer, is a dog breeder and co-director of dodgy canine fertility clinic Pets R Us & Fertility Clinic Morecambe Ltd, which operates from premises at 6 New Inn Yard, Poulton Square, Morecambe LA4 5PZ.
While it illegal for anyone other than a vet or qualified veterinary nurse to take blood from a dog , Pets R Us allegedly employ neither.
Sutcliffe’s breeding business trades from her home address under the name Ellie’s Kennels Ltd.
Sutcliffe previously lived in Howden-le-Wear, County Durham, and in December 2017 the Northern Echo reported that her application to operate a pet shop from her home in Fox Covert Grove, had been turned down by Durham County Council. The rejection came after the council confirmed it had received complaints from three people about third-party puppy sales.
Jack Reay is a co-director of Pets R Us & Fertility Clinic and is also sole director of a dog breeding business named Red Rose Kennels Ltd. The breeding business operates from Reay’s home address.
The familial relationship, if any, between Sutcliffe and Reay isn’t known. Sutcliffe is believed to be separated from her husband and Reay is married to Loraine Thomas Reay.
A litany of dog exploitation, starvation and neglect
Locals have known about these money-grabbing greeders for a while. One heartbroken owner whose English bulldog suffered a range of serious health issues took to Facebook to describe her dealings with Emily Sutcliffe. They wrote: “Coming from someone who bought a dog from Emily in 2017 she did a very good job of covering this up. We had no concerns when purchasing our first English bulldog. The conditions were nice and mum of pups was there. It all turned sour when Emily fell of the edge of the earth when trying to reach out and contact her for important health information for the pup.”
The extent of the pair’s abuse and exploitation of dogs and puppies was finally exposed to the wider public for the first time in June 2022 following a visit by officers from the local authority and police. These are the key events:
7 June 2022: Raid by Lancaster City Council officers
On 7 June 2022 Animal Licensing Officers from Lancaster City Council visited two dog breeding establishments owned and operated respectively by Jack Reay and Emily Sutcliffe. The visit was prompted by reports of concern over the welfare of dogs and puppies being kept by the pair.
At Reay’s Red Rose Kennels in Overton, Morecambe, officers found 25 adult dogs and 23 puppies living in outbuildings. There was evidence to suggest that the dogs had been left unattended for as long as four days. The licence holder Reay had been out of the country and hadn’t made provision for the animals to be attended to in his absence.
Officers noted significant animal welfare deficiencies at the premises and all of the puppies and dogs appeared to be in distress.
A total of 16 licence breaches were discovered. All of the animals were found to be dirty, and kept in conditions with no light, no water, no food, and had heavily soiled bedding.
Twenty-one dogs were removed from the premises taken to a vet for assessment.
Tragically, one puppy died and several others needed medical attention.
That same day, Animal Licensing Officers visited Emily Sutcliffe’s kennels on the Coastal Road, Hest Bank, Lancaster, after receiving reports of concern over the welfare of the dogs there. Again, there was nobody on site. It was noted that Sutcliffe had been out of the country for six days and had made no provision for the dogs’ welfare during her absence.
Sixteen dogs and nine puppies were being housed in two stable blocks behind Sutcliffe’s home. The number of dogs being kept was a breach of her licence conditions since she was only permitted to keep five adults.
There was no light, no water and no food for any of the animals, and all of their bedding was heavily soiled. In the second block,
Two of the puppies had been left without their mum.
There were 11 easily identifiable breaches of Animal Licensing laws.
16 June 2022: Breeding Licenses Revoked
Beyond Radio reported that Emily Sutcliffe and Jack Reay had lost their dog breeding licences with immediate effect.
The decision was taken by Suzanne Lodge, Director for Communities & the Environment at Lancaster City Council, on the grounds of number and severity of the breaches of licence conditions, and the impact this has had on the health and welfare of the dogs.
The action was taken under Section 15 of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of activities involving animals) (England) regulations.
Reay and Sutcliffe both have the right to appeal the decision.
29 June 2022: Dogs Returned to Sutcliffe and Reay
Lancs Live reported the shocking news that the majority of the 46 animals seized from Sutcliffe and Reay had been returned to them.
In a statement, a council spokesperson said: ‘’Responding to concerns raised by a member of the public, earlier this month the council’s animal licencing service visited two sites, one in Overton and another in Hest Bank, and based on the circumstances at the time action was taken to remove a number of adult dogs and puppies to safeguard their welfare.
’Some of the dogs were taken for veterinary assessment before being transferred to a local kennels to allow time to carry out an investigation.
“Based on the findings at the time, the licence to breed dogs was revoked for both operators. There is a right of appeal against the revocation.
“The council has been in discussions with the owners of the dogs, and reviewing legal options available to safeguard the future welfare of the dogs.
“Working with the owners, and having been satisfied that the facilities on site are now suitable, it has been agreed to return the majority of the dogs.
’The council’s animal licencing team will continue to monitor the condition and welfare of the dogs by unannounced visits and has requested confirmation of the intentions for rehoming and long-term care of the animals.”
6 January 2023: The Great Escape: Sutcliffe’s dogs flee squalor and cause havoc on the roads
Online news site Donkey Junk (seemingly defunct) reported that several dogs had escaped from Sutcliffe’s squalid kennels with four bringing traffic on the busy main road to a standstill. A further 12 dogs – said to be covered in faeces – were spotted ravenously eating rubbish scattered across the yard. Others could be heard howling in distress from a dark and foul-smelling shed at the bottom of the garden.
Sutcliffe was nowhere to be seen.
Members of the public lifted the dogs back over the fence to relative safety and tried to barricade the fence the best they could.
A Lancaster City Council dog warden attended due to evidence of animal cruelty, along with police.
One witness said: “The state of the place was awful. The smell, the dogs were so happy to see people but they were covered in their own waste. No water, no food, their beds were covered in waste. Awful that this is allowed to happen.”
Another said: of Emily Sutcliffe that “she keeps the dogs there for nothing more than breeding to make money, they are always escaping. All they want is some food and some love, none of which they get there.”
Some witnesses provided their contact info to the dog warden in attendance and were promised a call-back but at time of writing were reportedly still waiting.
One woman wrote on Facebook that: “the wardens already knew. I gave them so much evidence she was still dealing pups despite having a previous ban but they didn’t give a fuck”.
This was backed up by another who said the dog wardens “knew back in April 2021 and did nothing and didn’t get back to people who reported them.”
Update 9 January 2023
It was reported that Lancaster City Council had mounted an investigation following the events of 6 January at Emily Sutcliffe’s puppy farm.
A spokesman for Lancaster City Council told local newspaper the Lancaster Guardian that their dog wardens and animal licensing assistants had responded to the incident. They said that Sutcliffe was “made aware of the incident and returned home as soon as she was informed.”
The concluded: “We intend to follow the incident up this week with the owner and the witnesses who stopped to help recover the animals, in line with our normal investigation procedure.”
Later that week Donkey Junk revealed that Sutcliffe’s premises is owned by the boxer Tyson Fury, an Irish traveller known as The Gypsy King. Fury also featured in the cover photo for Sutcliffe’s other business, Pets R us & Fertility Clinic Morecambe. That photo has since been removed.
On 12 January 2023 the story was picked up by the national newspapers with both the Daily Mail and Daily Express publishing detailed articles on this developing story.