Jail terms for Newcastle pair who kept three dogs locked in faeces-infested bathroom

Three dogs were rescued from atrocious conditions after being discovered locked in a bathroom at a home in Newcastle. The RSPCA were asked by Northumbria Police to attend the property on Kingsley Terrace on February 6 this year, where they found Bella, a french bulldog and Sox and Nelson, both Staffordshire bull terriers.

The dog’s owners, Neil Coates and Vikki Hoyland pleaded guilty to four offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and were handed 20-week prison sentences for their neglect of the dogs. The pair left the dogs without food, and when the dogs developed serious health issues they did not take them to the vets.

RSPCA inspector Kirsty Keogh-Laws attended the property and found that Bella had a severe skin infection, Sox was emaciated and Nelson was unable to walk because of malnourishment and various other underlying health conditions.

In a witness statement presented to court, Keogh-Laws said: “The bathroom was absolutely filthy. There was a very strong smell of urine and faeces covered the floor from one side of the room to the other. There was a pile of around 30 faeces next to the radiator in the room. Some of these appeared to have been there some time as they were beginning to turn white.

The faeces had been spread across the floor and ingrained into the flooring, there were paw prints set into the faeces as if they had been there for some time. There were four bowls in the room all of which were completely empty, the bowls had faeces stuck to the side of them. The flooring had been ripped up in places.”

Keogh-Laws took the dogs to the local vets for treatment, and all three were placed into the care of RSPCA Felledge Animal Centre. Sadly, Sox and Nelson were in such a state of poor health that a vet decided to put them to sleep to end their suffering. Bella survived, is on the way to making a full recovery and is due to be rehomed soon.