CONVICTED (2009) | Jeanette Smith, born 20/11/1961, of Kempthorne Road, Bilston WV14 7AL – kept four emaciated Staffies in appalling conditions in her back garden
Jeannette Smith was banned from keeping animals for life after admitting nine counts of causing unnecessary suffering to her pets.
Smith, who was given a 10-year ban on keeping animals in 1990 after a previous cruelty case, also admitted failing in her duty of care to the animals by not providing a suitable environment for them.
The court heard how the four dogs were discovered in an emaciated state suffering from skin and ear conditions.
RSPCA inspector Jayne Bashford visited Smith’s home in April 2009 where she found dogs Zena, Princess, Ellie and Roly perched on top of a makeshift shelf.
Nick Sutton, prosecuting, told the court yesterday it was totally inadequate for any protection from the weather, and that Smith had failed to feed the dogs properly or take them to the vets.
He added: “It was perfectly clear to see these animals were extremely emaciated and very sick, with obvious skin complaints.
“There was no food and no water an officer described the ground as being littered with faeces and said there was no clean place for those dogs to stand anywhere.”
A vet gave all four dogs, of the brindle variety, scores of 1.5 or under on a scale, where one indicates a dangerously thin dog and five indicates obesity.
The court also heard how RSPCA inspectors had visited the property in the past, issuing an order to boost Zena’s weight.
A follow-up visit revealed that the dog had gained some weight, and Ms Bashford left her contact details at the RSPCA, telling Smith to call her if there were any more problems.
Hockham Singh Suthi, defending Smith, said the single mother accepted she should have called Ms Bashford, adding that she had struggled with the cost of keeping the dogs.
“She fully accepts the dogs were not in a very good condition,” he said.
The court heard that Roly, Zena and Ellie have been found new homes, while Princess had to be put down due to a heart condition.
Sentencing: four-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. Lifetime ban on keeping animals.
CONVICTED (2009) | Mary-Ellen Collis, born c. 1958, then owner of Wardana breeding kennels in Brigstock, near Kettering – abandoned 100 St Bernards to go on holiday to Tenerife
Collis, who now lives in Treen Close, Thrapston NN14 4UU, pleaded guilty to seven counts of causing unnecessary suffering to 85 dogs and one count of failing to meet the welfare needs of 14 dogs.
RSPCA inspectors visited the kennels following a tip-off and discovered the dogs living in filthy kennels with no access to fresh food or water.
The court heard how a total of 99 dogs had been abandoned at the kennels. Eighty-five of the St Bernards were suffering from medical problems such as abscesses, ulcerated skin and eye conditions and ear infections which had not been treated. Many were emaciated.
Three of the puppies were very thin and their ribs were visible. One dog was unable to stand and was suffering from dehydration. She had several open sores on her legs and feet caused by pressure and urine scalds. Another was in such a poor condition that the vet had to put the dog to sleep at the scene to prevent him from suffering further.
Another dog died overnight after suffering a heart attack at the veterinary surgery. He was thin, covered in faeces and was suffering from severe dehydration. Another had severely ulcerated eyes, which had not been treated and had caused blindness.
Ultimately 16 dogs died. The others were rehomed following a campaign by the RSPCA.
Prosecutor Kevin McCole told the court that the RSPCA was called after David Nolan, a member of the public, became concerned about the welfare of his mother’s dog. Repeated visits found nobody on the site and Mr Nolan called the police, but they said they could do nothing if there was no immediate threat to a human. Eventually he contacted the RSPCA and asked them to intervene.
When inspectors went into the abandoned kennels on November 29, 2008, they found dogs ranging from nine weeks to eight years of age, many of them were covered in urine and faeces. There was not enough food and water available and most were in a poor state.
Mr McCole said: “The defendant had left her premises and left the dogs effectively unattended while she went on holiday to Tenerife with her partner. It seems she went away on November 24 and subsequent to that for a number of days there was nobody at the premises.”
The court heard Collis, who had been declared bankrupt in 2007, claimed she was struggling for money in order to keep the kennels going. She told RSPCA inspectors that she had asked other people to look after the dogs, though they have since said they had never agreed to such a request.
Mr McCole told the court: “She gave no explanation as to why it was that she went away and why she made no provision for the wellbeing, welfare and care of the large number of dogs that were in her care at that time.’’
He told the court the dogs were boarded and treated by several vets – and experts concluded most of them had suffered neglect for several weeks or months.
Ms Collis’ defence solicitor Ben Brown, said his client’s actions were out of character. He said the former kennel-owner, who had bred and exhibited St Bernards for 30 years, had been well-respected in dog breeding circles.
He said she had bought the kennels in 2000, but things took a turn for the worse when she hit financial problems. She was declared bankrupt in May 2007 but Mr Brown said problems emerged with what to do with the dogs after the bankruptcy was set in motion.
Sentencing | 18 weeks in prison. Disqualified from keeping animals for 10 years (expired 2019).
CONVICTED (2009) | Dawn Elizabeth Rose, born 25/01/1960, previously of Llangolen, North Wales, and more recently Duncan Street, Brinsworth, Rotherham S60 5DE – allowed 72 horses on her failing stud farm to starve
RSPCA inspectors found desperately emaciated animals on Dawn Rose’s stud farm.
Divorcee Dawn Rose set up a stud farm using a £300,000 pay-out from her ex-partner to fulfil her teenage daughter’s dream of breeding ponies.
But the business was a failure, and when inspectors raided it they found desperately emaciated animals foraging for scraps of food.
Rose pleaded guilty to six charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals.
The mother-of-two wept as RSPCA prosecutor Glen Murphy said the experienced inspection team had been “stunned” by the appalling condition of the animals on her stud farm.
RSPCA inspector Chris Dunbar first visited Rose in March 2008 when she bought her 42-acre farm to start a stud.
Inspector Dunbar said: “We had concerns from the start as she wasn’t feeding the horses. We kept going back — she listened but did nothing.”
One horse, a chestnut mare called Mist, was little more than a ‘skeleton with skin stretched over’, and the vet who treated her was amazed she could still stand up.
Three others were so weak that they died soon afterwards.
Rose, who had moved to the area from Norfolk, told investigators her money had run out and she could not afford to pay for the animals.
Sitting at Mold magistrates court, district judge Andrew Shaw told Ms Rose: “You neglected these horses in an obvious and shameful way.”
Mr Dunbar added: “We were happy with the ban. Our job is to stop cruelty and in this case that’s what we feel we’ve done.”
Sentencing: three-month sentence suspended for 12 months; 100 hours of unpaid community work. Banned from keeping or being involved with horses for 10 years (expired 2019).
As a bankrupt, Rose was only ordered to pay £250 of the RSPCA’s prosecution costs of £128,554.
CONVICTED (2009) | Michelle ‘Shelly’ Porter, born 22/09/1988, of Heather Bank, Cleator Moor CA25 5HW – let one dog starve to death and left another fighting for his life
Mother of two Shelly Porter was jailed after leaving her dogs to starve
Heroin addict Michelle Porter admitted causing unnecessary suffering to Staffordshire bull terriers Zelda and Diesel.
RSPCA officers found the carcass of five-year-old Zelda, when they went to Porter’s home. Zelda’s son, one-year-old Diesel, was emaciated.
Diesel was skeletal when rescued by the RSPCA. Happily he recovered and was rehomed.
It is believed both dogs had been left to starve for three weeks, despite a large bag of open dog food and six tins of dog food being only two metres away from the cages the dogs were kept in.
Peter Sharp, prosecuting for the RSPCA, told the court that Zelda’s hips, ribs and spine were clearly visible when she was found by an RSPCA inspector and the floor was sodden with urine.
Presiding magistrate David Wilson told Porter the offences were so serious that only custody could be justified.
Diesel recovered and was rehomed.
Sentencing: 120 days in a young offenders institute for each of the four animal cruelty charges, to run concurrently. Banned from keeping animals for life.
#MostEvil | Amersham horse trader James John Gray (05/09/1963), wife Julie Cordelia Gray (24/05/1967) and daughters Jodie June Gray (12/09/1982) and Cordelia Gray (29/05/1988) and James Gray junior (23/01/1993) – left more than 100 horses, ponies and donkeys to starve among the rotting carcasses of other animals
Clockwise from top left: James Gray Sr, Julie Gray, Cordelia Gray, Jodie Gray, court protestors, James Gray Jr
In a case veterinary expert witness described as the worst case of animal cruelty they had ever seen, 31 equines were found dead at Spindle Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, Amersham. Some 111 other horses, ponies and donkeys were rescued.
The massive rescue was co-ordinated by Thames Valley Police, Trading Standards and the RSPCA with help from the Horse Trust, the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH), Redwings Horse Sanctuary and the Blue Cross
James Gray Sr is banned for life from keeping equine animals
Hooves and body parts of horses that had been left to die were scattered around and a grotesque mound made up of bones and skulls was discovered.
The horror scene was uncovered when RSPCA inspectors were called to the farm, where a horse-trading business run by the Gray family was based.
James Gray Jr
There were 140 animals at the farm and many were left with little food or dry bedding, were crammed into pens and ankle-deep in their own faeces.
Jodie Gray, aka Jodie Keet, with son Tommy Gray
In total 115 animals, some severely emaciated, had to be rescued and removed from the farm during a huge operation in January 2009.
Robert Seabrook QC told the court how two RSPCA inspectors visiting the farm in January 2008 were confronted with a “grotesque and distressing state of affairs”.
He said a number of horses were discovered in “disgusting pens”, some were tethered individually and others were loose in the paddocks.
The most extraordinary aspect he said was that many horses were next to carcasses in varying states of decomposition and the smell of rotting flesh was “over-powering”.
He added: “A number of animals that were found had plainly been dead for a number of days and as it turns out, some for many months.”
Julie Gray
The court heard in one pen three severed hooves were found alongside the bodies of two other horses.
James Gray Sr was convicted of nine charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals and two charges of failing to protect animals from pain, injury, suffering and disease.
His son James Gray Jr was convicted of identical charges although two were later overturned on appeal.
Gray’s wife, Julie, and daughters Cordelia and Jodie were found guilty of the two charges of failing to protect the animals.
No member of the family showed any sign of emotion as the judge passed sentence.
RSPCA inspector Kirsty Hampton described the conditions the horses were kept in as “grotesque”.
Speaking after the sentencing, Hampton said: “The RSPCA is pleased the district judge has recognised the extent of the cruelty, neglect and the suffering endured by the animals in this case.
“We see the disqualifications from keeping horses as an effective measure to prevent animals suffering in future.”
Sentencing: James Gray Sr was sentenced to six months in prison and banned from keeping horses, ponies and donkeys for life. He was also ordered to pay £400,000. Gray was given a further two months after absconding from court. Two of Gray’s convictions were overturned in 2010, but Gray was ordered to pay £600,000 towards the RSPCA’s legal costs and faced financial ruin. A later appeal against what Gray claimed were disproportionate legal costs was rejected.
James Gray Junior was given an 18-month supervision order. He was banned from keeping equines for 10 years with right of appeal after five (ban expired June 2019).
Julie, Jodie and Cordelia Gray were each given 150 hours of community service. They were also banned from keeping equines for 10 years, with the right of appeal after five (bans expired June 2019).
Julie Gray was ordered to pay £750 in costs, and Cordelia Gray and Jodie Gray £500 each.
James Gray and Cordelia Gray, 57 Narcot Road, Chalfont St Giles HP8 4DF Julie Cordelia Gray, 15 Weller Road, Amersham HP6 6LQ James Gray Jr, Chalk Hill Farm, Chalk Lane, Hyde Heath, Amersham HP6 5SA Jodie June Gray (also known as Jodie Keet), 14 Middle Meadow, Chalfont St Giles HP8 4QS
Update September 2021
The Bucks Free Press reported that James Gray was let off £200,000-worth of fines due to bankruptcy.
Gray was ordered to pay more than £1million in fines and court costs and has served jail time since he was convicted of multiple animal welfare offences in 2008.
He attempted to appeal the convictions at London’s High Court in 2013, but although two of his 11 original convictions were overturned, he was ultimately unsuccessful and had another £200,000 added to his legal bill.
In August 2021, Gray, of 57 Narcot Road in Chalfont St Giles, had £223,453-worth of fines written off.
Documents attached to the court listing state that the amount was remitted due to Gray being bankrupt, having served prison time, and the RSPCA refusing the money.
In 2014, Gray was hauled back before the courts and was jailed for four-and-a-half years after he fleeced pensioners out of thousands of pounds for cowboy building works.
In an attempt to raise funds to pay off his fines and court costs, Gray conned an 88-year-old former British Library academic out of £20,000 for work which experts valued at just £150.
He drained £18,000 out of another 80-year-old victim’s account, leaving him with just £300 after repeatedly demanding money from him. This victim died just months after the money was found to be missing.
Gray, who had done this work under the fake name ‘Joseph De Paula’, admitted two counts of fraud by false representation before he was sentenced at Swindon Crown Court.
CONVICTED (2009) | Marianne Stribling aka Marianne Arkless, born 16/01/1981, of John Gay Close, Barnstaple EX32 8DB – locked two dogs in a garden shed to starve to death and failed to feed a rabbit
Pet killer Marianne Stribling is banned for life from keeping animals but had already breached her ban just one year after her initial sentence
German shepherd Charm and a collie named Prince were left to died in agony over three weeks in Stribling’s back yard. All that remained of Prince was matted fur, teeth and bones. Charm had eaten his remains in desperation before she also starved to death.
The corpses of the two dogs were found in a tiny garden shed. No food or water was available and a fenced-off run in the yard was covered in dog faeces and mud.
An RSPCA inspector was forced to crawl through a kitchen window to get in to the yard, because Stribling had lost the back door key.
A rabbit was also found at the scene. She too had been starved and had to be put to sleep.
Stribling told magistrates she had credit card debts totalling between £20,000 and £30,000 and could not afford to buy food for the dogs – one of which was said to have been an unwanted gift.
She claimed she had been “vilified” and had received death threats.
Animal welfare protestors were out in force at Stribling’s trial and as she was led away to begin a three-month prison sentence a woman in the public gallery called her an “evil bitch”.
Stribling was also banned from keeping animals for life, but in November 2009, following a tip-off, the RSPCA discovered two eight-week old kittens at her home. Police had to be called when the inspector was abused by a neighbour of Stribling but the cats were eventually handed over.
Sentencing: 12 weeks in prison. Banned from keeping animals for life.
CONVICTED (2009) | Jamie Paul Lismore, born 11 August 1984, of 34 Bankwell Street*, Brierley Hill, Dudley DY5 1PW – abandoned his animals, leaving one starving cat to eat her own kittens.
2015 photo of Jamie Lismore
Nine pets belonging to Jamie Lismore were left to die having been without food and water for at least one week. Three kittens aged just two weeks, were found dead at Lismore’s then home in The Avenue, Darlaston, while another young cat died despite the best efforts of RSPCA personnel to save her.
The young cats had become trapped in the kitchen alongside their three-year-old mother Maddie who had been so neglected she was rated as one on the body condition scoring system – which means emaciated.
Two of the kittens were dismembered, one dead and another was in such a bad way he had to be put down.
With the help of police, RSPCA inspector Deborah Scotcher managed to get inside the faeces-riddled property on July 9, 2008, where the animals appeared hungry and thirsty.
Lismore during his court appearance in February 2009
When assessed by vets the highest body score rating was three out of five for labrador, Major, who was around a year-old, while black and white collie Minstral, aged two, and tan mastiff cross-breed Duke, around eight months, rated just two. A three-month old cat called Patrick was also found.
It was only then the other cats, in the kitchen, were seen. Vets could not confirm if the kittens had died of starvation or were stillborn.
Lismore, who also has links to West Bromwich, admitted three charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and two of being a person responsible for an animal to ensure its welfare.
Mr Nick Sutton, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said: “This was a grave situation of abandonment.”
Mr Rob Perry, defending, said Lismore had been through a relationship breakdown at the time and was not regularly staying at the property. He said: “He is regretful and deeply sorry.”
Sentencing: 17 weeks in prison. Disqualified from keeping any animals for 25 years (expires 2034).
CONVICTED (2008) | Andrea Smiley, born 08/01/1980, of Blackstoun Oval, Paisley PA3 1LR – left her pet German shepherd to starve to death in her abandoned flat.
Heartless Andrea Smiley who abandoned an Alsatian to starve to death
The desperate dog had locked condensation from a window in a desperate attempt for water.
A post mortem showed Snowy had no traces of food in her stomach and had lost two-thirds of her body weight. She had been shut in a room of the ground-floor flat, amid total squalor with the door tied with string and wool to keep it shut. By the time worried neighbours raised the alarm it was too late and Snowy had already died from starvation.
Before sentence was passed, Smiley’s defence agent made a plea for mitigation. He said two psychiatric reports had been submitted showing that his client was emotionally unstable and experiencing bouts of depression which led her to self-harm.
He also said she was living in fear after being threatened following publicity from earlier hearings.
Sentence: 240 hours of community service. Banned from keeping animals for life.
CONVICTED (2008) | Rose Jay, born c. 1949, of Monksfield Farm, Monksfield Lane, Newland, Malvern WR13 5BB – found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a chestnut mare.
Rose Jay outside court in 2008
Jay’s pregnant horse, called Sunshine, was found emaciated and being kept, along with others, in a Christmas tree plantation.
A representative from World Horse Welfare (formerly ILPH) visited Jay’s farm in 2006 and saw the mare in poor condition in a field with some hay but no water.
She visited again a few weeks later and found the horses were without grass, hay or water.
On March 15, 2007, the woman discovered the horses had been moved to a Christmas tree plantation.
Nicholas Sutton, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said: “The mare appeared to have deteriorated.
“There was no hay or grass in the plantation but there was straw.”
A few days later, the woman returned and was shocked to see the mare was emaciated, with protruding spine and ribs.
The RSPCA was contacted and a vet subsequently said the animal, which also had lice and worms, had been suffering for several weeks.
Representing herself, Jay said the mare had since given birth to a healthy foal and had absorbed the weight to put into the foal.
She said she moved the horses to the plantation after an attempted theft and was £30,000 in debt.
She said her other horses were healthy and she intended to appeal against her conviction.
The RSPCA’s chief inspector for Worcestershire, Lee Hopgood, welcomed the sentence imposed on Jay, saying: “I feel it adequately reflects the seriousness of the offence and Mrs Jay’s clear inability to adequately care for horses or take advice.”
Sentencing: 12-week prison sentence suspended for 13 months. Total of £3,150 costs including vets’ bills. Banned from keeping horses and ponies for five years (expired May 2013).
CONVICTED (2007) | Maxine Askew, born c. 1971, and husband Paul Askew, born 14 October 1976, formerly of Briardale Way, Easington, County Durham, and as at March 2019 believed to be living at Dixon Rise, Horden, Peterlee SR8 4HX – failed to seek veterinary help for their emaciated, lice-ridden pony
Maxine and Paul Askew admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the male bay pony whom the RSPCA had discovered in a distressed condition at an allotment in Hackworth Road, Blackpool.
The yearling was examined by a vet and was found to be very thin. He was covered in live lice and eggs and had sustained large areas of hair loss.
The pony weighed only 101kg, but by August 2006, after being in the care of the RSPCA, he more than doubled his body weight to 233kg.
The Askews were banned from keeping horses for ten years.
When interviewed, Paul Askew said he had only had the colt for four to five months and he had been in the best of health “until it got these fleas”, which he said he treated with powder.
When questioned, Maxine Askew said her husband had been treating the fleas and she described the pony as a “fussy eater”.
Sentencing: total fines and costs of £875 each. Disqualified from keeping horses for ten years (expired January 2017).
