RSPCA: Dog ban for woman after 30 poodles with matted coats rescued from faeces-filled property

Warning: Some of the content and images in this story may be distressing.

A Welsh woman has been handed a 10 year pet ban after dozens of poodles with coats so matted some of them couldn't even urinate were found on her property.

Alison Denise Silk, 67, of Haverfordwest, has this month been sentenced at at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court after earlier pleading guilty to four Animal Welfare Act charges. They involved causing unnecessary suffering to 20 poodles by failing to provide adequate food; causing unnecessary suffering to five poodles by failing to provide vet care for severe dental disease; and causing unnecessary suffering to 29 poodles by failing to provide grooming.

Silk was banned from keeping any animal for 10 years, and was handed 26 and 16-week custodial sentences, both suspended for 12 months, which will run concurrently. She will also need to undertake 10 rehabilitation days with the probation service, while the last seven of her 30 dogs have now been signed over to the RSPCA.

The court heard a statement by RSPCA Inspector Keith Hogben, who attended the Haverfordwest property on 4 September last year. He said he could smell "a very unpleasant smell of dog faeces and urine" as he entered the front door. "The door to the kitchen was closed and as the door was opened a large number of dogs greeted us, the dogs were all barking and each of the dogs were heavily matted," he continued.

He was next shown a conservatory. "The room was very hot with dogs in cages and large amounts of faeces both fresh and trodden into the floor," he said. "Any bedding in the dog cages was soiled and there was no water in this room for any of the dogs. Again the dogs in this room had heavily matted coats which were contaminated with faeces. I did not see any windows open."

The back garden was also covered with dog faeces, Inspector Hogben continued, "and had obviously not been cleaned for many weeks [or] months", and he also found a wheelbarrow full of droppings. There were eight dogs all with heavily matted coats and no water inside one kennel - and five male dogs in similar condition in the other.

“There was a large build up of faeces in this kennel which had not been cleaned out for a very long time. The door to the kennel could not be opened fully due to the build up of faeces. These dog's were then let out by Alison Silk and they started to drink from a bucket containing green coloured water," he said.

A vet who attended confirmed that all the dogs would need to be removed. In their statement to the court they said the lack of grooming would have caused all but one of the 30 dogs to suffer. One had an ear matted to the side of his head, while others were unable to urinate properly due to matting - meaning their urine soaked into their fur.

Many of the dogs were underweight or covered in fleas beneath their coats, and had severe dental and eye disease in need of urgent care. Vets and rescue centres which took the dogs in were able to shave their matted coats to make them more comfortable, and some have since been rehomed. The RSPCA said one unfortunately had to be put to sleep on welfare grounds.

The final seven dogs who following the hearing have been signed over to the RSPCA will now be rehomed too. Following the hearing, Inspector Hogben added: “We would like to thank everyone who was involved in this case, especially Pembrokeshire County Council dog warden Sally Bland, Greenacres Rescue, a number of RSPCA branches, and the member of the public who reported this incident.”

In mitigation, Silk told the court that she was sorry, and spoke about her family circumstances and health issues.