CONVICTED (2021) | commercial breeder Michael Dawson trading as Element Bullies, born 14 November 1971, of Tamerton Foliot Road, Plymouth PL6 – allowed a puppy’s ears to be mutilated
Company director Michael Dawson, who owns Element Bullys Ltd, was caught with the mutilated American pocket bully-type bitch in a raid by police and other agencies at his Plymouth house.
The tan and white dog, called Riot, was found in a crate in the garden with cropped ears.
The dog was seized by the RSPCA and has since been rehomed.
Dawson pleaded guilty to permitting another person to perform a prohibited procedure or failing to protect a protected animal in June 2019.
Despite owning a plumbing and heating business, Dawson was not banned from keeping animals because he claimed breeding dogs was his only source of income.
He told the court that he had bought the puppy from a Scottish breeder for £5,000.
The RSPCA said that Dawson said to the magistrates that he had sent Riot away to meet a potential mate.
He said that he was upset when the dog returned with her ears cropped.
A vet who examined Riot found both of her ears, or pinnae, had been surgically removed and still had blue/purple sutures and pink antibiotic spray. Biopsies taken showed the injuries had been inflicted around two weeks earlier.
An RSPCA spokesperson said Riot was taken into foster care when the multi-agency warrant was executed with Plymouth City Council at the fore.
She added: “Riot was signed over to the RSPCA in March 2020 and settled in well to her new home.”
The RSPCA said ear-cropping was on the increase despite being illegal. It is allowed in America and other European countries.
The charity added that people were encouraged by celebrities who had cropped dogs as in a separate case shown above.
But the RSPCA says that it is painful and unnecessary, affecting the way dogs hear and communicate.
Dawson was fined in November 2020 at the same court for having illegal veterinary medicines.
Dawson and his company admitted having five substances, including prescription only antibiotic treatment for dogs.
It followed a raid under a search warrant by officials from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Both Dawson and the company pleaded guilty to possession of unauthorised medicinal products.
Dawson was fined £265 and ordered to pay £85 costs and £30 victim surcharge.
Element Bullys Ltd was fined £1,500, plus a £150 victim surcharge.
Sentencing: fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £100 victim surcharge.
Update March 2021
Dawson returned to court to face prosecution by Plymouth City Council for operating a dog breeding establishment without a licence. The court heard he sold dogs over Facebook and Instagram for 16 months without a permit. He made just over £63,000 by operating without a licence under legislation introduced in 2018.
It was reported that the council were also prosecuting Dawson under Proceeds of Crime legislation in an attempt to seize back the money he made through his business.
The council estimated he made £64,000, though this was hotly disputed by his solicitor.
Recorder David Chidgey rejected the council’s bid to ban him from keeping dogs or being in any business which bred or sold them.
He said: “There is no evidence to suggest that you have mistreated any animal at any time.”
Recorder Chidgey, noting that the defendant faced paying the council’s £7,000 costs and action under the Proceeds of Crime Act, imposed a two-year conditional discharge.
He added: “The reality is that the regulations are there to ensure that animals are protected.”
Urging him to get his licence, the judge said: “Get on and do it. Make sure you do not come back into court again.”
Gregory Gordon, prosecuting on behalf of Plymouth City Council, said the authority would use a ‘fit and proper person’ test on Dawson when he applied.
But he said that the defendant had three convictions for himself and his companies relating to dogs.
Dawson pleaded guilty to the single charge under the Animal Welfare Act of breeding dogs without a licence between September 30, 2018 and January 18, 2020.
Mr Gregory said that Dawson had run his business for 15 to 20 years but had fallen foul of the new regulations starting in 2018.
He said that during a 16-month period investigators had found evidence that Dawson had bred “some 22 identified dog litters” and that there was evidence that there “probably more litters”.
These were advertised on Facebook and Instagram accounts.
He added: “He said he was selling them around the world, including to celebrities in America.”
Mr Gregory said that Dawson’s attitude toward licensing had been “woeful”.
He added that no application was received by the council, though the defendant had called to ask when he was going to be inspected in June 2019.
The court heard that the average cost of a licence application, depending on veterinary fees, was £600.
Dawson had three Facebook accounts – Mike Dawson, Michael Dawson and Element Bullys – as well as an Instagram account. All were used to advertise his dogs.
The court was told that the Element Bullys was registered in Dawson’s name with Companies House and the firm was previously known as M Dawson Dog Breeding Ltd between April 2015 and August 2017. Both firms were based at Faraday Mill Business Park in Cattedown.
Mr Gregory said that puppies would be sold for between £1,000 and £1,500 but admitted that the claim that Dawson made £64,000 was an estimate.
Dawson’s solicitor Stephen Nunn said that his client “still lives and breathes dogs” and had two as pets. He said that the claims Dawson made on social media that he had a world-wide reputation were true.
He added that he was regarded as an expert on matching dogs to produce the desired colours in puppies.
Nunn said that the annual turnover for the business was £41,000, and nearly half of that was spent on veterinary fees.
He added that Dawson was a former addict who had “turned his life around”, building up first a painting and decorating business and then following in his father’s footsteps to breed and sell dogs.
Update February 2022
Following Proceeds of Crime action by Plymouth City Council, Michael Dawson was ordered to pay back more than £100,000 of his ill-gotten gains over a period of 20 years as an unlicensed dog breeder.
In October 2021 it was revealed the the council had granted Dawson a breeding licence after he supposedly passed a ‘fit and proper person’ test.
Judge William Mousley ordered Dawson pay a total of £106,000 under the confiscation proceedings – under laws usually deployed against drug dealers or big-time fraudsters.
Dawson was told he must pay within three months or face a year in prison.
A financial assessor estimated that he had assets to pay the bill – mainly four properties, two of which he had inherited.
By now Dawson had racked up three convictions for himself and his companies, relating to dogs but continues to sell dogs online on a massive scale.