CONVICTED (2024) | Phillip Boyer, born 4 December 2004, of Waterdale Crescent, St Helens WA9 3PD – left an XL Bully to die in a rubbish and faeces-strewn flat.
Police found the female tan and white XL bully, named Cali, lying dead in the filthy living room of Boyer’s flat in Waterdale Crescent, St Helens, on June 15, 2023. She was very thin and suffering from canine parvovirus which had not been treated.
An RSPCA inspector attending the scene described being met with a pungent overpowering smell of urine, faeces and decomposition, and saw no sign of food or water for the dog.
Boyer, who admitted being reliant on alcohol and drugs, pleaded guilty to three offences contrary to the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
He said in an interview that he hadn’t noticed Cali’s weight loss.
The court heard that RSPCA Inspector Leanne Cooper had gone to the property following the police’s request.
In written evidence she said: “Each room I looked in was filthy and littered with rubbish. In the lounge there was a really pungent overpowering smell of urine, faeces and decomposition. I could see what appeared to be smears of faeces all over the floor and up the walls.
“Over towards the television stand in the corner of the room I could see a dead white bull breed dog that looked to be in very thin bodily condition, with her ribs, hips and backbone prominent.
“Cali’s fur looked to be stained brown on her legs and back end. There was also what looked like a brown dried patch of diarrhoea on the floor underneath her rear end. There was a mop bucket nearby that looked thick, brown and dirty with faeces. The floor was littered with rubbish and hazards such as broken glass. I didn’t see any sign of food or water provided for Cali.”
The inspector also took photographs of a shed in the communal garden where Cali was said to have been kept, sometimes for hours at a time. The wooden door and frame appeared to have been chewed and there were splinters all over the floor.
A vet from the RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital examined the dog later the same day. She gave Cali a body condition score of two out of nine and said her ribs, lumbar vertebrae and pelvic bones were easily visible and she had no palpable fat.
The result of a faecal sample showed Cali had canine parvovirus, a highly contagious virus that can be fatal to dogs, with puppies and unvaccinated dogs most at risk.
In her evidence to the court, the vet said: “Parvovirus can cause rapid deterioration and suffering if no veterinary intervention is provided. The duration of these failings will be a minimum of several days, the duration of the environmental failings is likely to be for a period of weeks looking at the evidence presented. Regardless of the cause of poor body condition and diarrhoea, the owner should have sought veterinary advice to relieve her suffering.
“Cali will have undoubtedly felt weakness and debilitation having a severe lack of energy, worsened by the haemorrhagic diarrhoea. This will have been uncomfortable and severely impacted her everyday life, ability to move, to obtain food or water and even to play.
“I would expect a responsible owner to seek veterinary attention should their pet become underweight, to a point that they were below point 4 out of 9 on the body condition score, moreover, if their animal became weak or lethargic.”
The court was told that in the weeks that followed Inspector Cooper made repeated attempts to speak to Boyer about potential animal welfare offences, but most of the calls went straight to voicemail or the line would go dead when she said who she was.
With the assistance of police, he was located and finally interviewed in November about what had happened to Cali.
In interview, Boyer said he was reliant on alcohol and drugs and struggled to buy food for himself and Cali. He said he didn’t notice her weight loss, suggesting that she had always been a lean dog, and he hadn’t taken her to the vet as had no money to do so and didn’t have a phone to call the RSPCA for help.
Speaking after the case Inspector Cooper said: “Going into the property and finding Cali’s body, lying all alone surrounded by piles of rubbish, was an extremely sad and upsetting sight. She was badly let down by the person who should have been caring for her and suffered over a prolonged period because no veterinary assistance or any other sort of help had been sought.”
Sentencing | 17-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months; 20 days of rehabilitation; 160 hours of unpaid work; victim surcharge of £154. Five-year ban on keeping all animals (expires April 2029).
