Cork woman who kept dogs in 'appalling conditions' banned from owning animals
Condition With Water Them Found Available Dogs Were No Food Poor To Ina Very Or
A woman who kept more than a dozen dogs of various breeds in “appalling conditions” over a prolonged period has been banned from owning animals.
Miriam Santry of The Meadows, Belgooly, Co Cork appeared before Bandon District Court facing a total of 12 summonses for alleged offences under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013. Santry pleaded guilty to the charges.
Giving evidence, Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ISPCA) Inspector Caroline Faherty said that she had first received complaints about Santry in September 2022.
She said that the complaints related to the conditions dogs were being kept in at two properties, one in Belgooly and the other in Kinsale.
Insp. Faherty told the court that she went to both properties on several occasions but was unable to make contact with Santry. She said that from looking through the letterbox in Belgooly she could see the house was full of rubbish and several dogs could be heard barking. She said that on September 21, 2022 she received a letter from a solicitor representing Santry asking her not to call to her properties anymore.
In October 2022, Santry brought a dog with a broken pelvis to a local vet. She told the vet that she had tried to mate the seven-month-old poodle with a bigger dog but refused the vet’s advice on treatment and asked for painkillers for the injured dog. The vet alerted the ISPCA.
On December 22, 2022 Insp. Faherty executed a warrant to search both properties. She told the court that she gained access to the Belgooly property via the back garden and nobody was present when she arrived with gardaí. Inside she found eight adult dogs in a small crate suitable for two dogs at most. She said that the property was strewn with rubbish and the smell was so bad that the accompanying gardaí had to remain outside. Insp. Faherty told the court that five puppies were also found in two crates.
The dogs were in a very poor condition with no food or water available to them. The windows of the house were blacked out and there was faeces and urine all over the floor. The dogs were malnourished and their coats were matted with urine and faeces. The dogs also variously suffered from hair loss, ear infections, worms, eye infections, dermatitis, and heart murmurs. A further inspection was carried out in Kinsale, where another three dogs were found in similar conditions.
Insp. Faherty said that the animals had been subjected to prolonged suffering and neglect and a decision was taken to seize the dogs and attempt to find suitable homes for them. She told the court that four of the dogs, which were chipped with Santry’s details, could not be re-homed because Santry had refused to surrender the animals to the ISPCA. As a result, they had been kept in boarding kennels since they were seized at a cost to the ISPCA of €56,000.
Defence solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said that his client, who was now in her 50s, had relatively recently suffered from mental health issues and had become estranged from her family. He said that she had too many dogs and the situation had “got out of control" .He said she was of limited means and was struggling financially and mentally.
State solicitor for West Cork, Jeremiah Healy, who took the prosecution on behalf of the minister for agriculture, food, and the marine, said that for a case like this to come to court was the last straw and that the State felt it was necessary to prosecute in the circumstances.
Judge Philip O’Leary said that it was clear from the evidence there had been an appalling treatment of animals over a considerable period of time, he said it was an appalling case. On the first summons he convicted and fined Miriam Santry €250 and took the other 11 charges into consideration. He prohibited her from owning any animals and ordered her to surrender any animals she currently owns to the ISPCA.