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Breeder kept guinea pigs in squalid cages
AN ANIMAL breeder who kept 70 guinea pigs with little food or water in cramped hutches covered in faeces has been banned from having animals for the next two years.
Claire Fox, aged 46, told the RSPCA she was "addicted" to guinea pigs and "loved them all" when the society investigated the conditions.
But Sheffield Magistrates' Court heard RSPCA officers found a dead guinea pig in the same hutch as live creatures.
In the garden of her home were 26 hutches, described as filthy and with little bedding, with at least seven covered in faeces.
Brian Orsborn, prosecuting, told the court Fox had kept guinea pigs since she was a child.
The society investigated at her home on Luterel Drive, Swallownest, last November.
The hutches were overcrowded with little or no food in each. Many of the water bottles were empty, covered in green slime, and some of the animals were attacking the bottles trying to get water.
Four of the animals were found living in a hutch around the decayed remains of four other dead guinea pigs.
Mr Orsborn added that although there was little food in the hutches, there were four 20kg sacks of food, as well as bedding and hay, sitting next to the cages.
The RSPCA called a vet and the police, and the animals - also including a rabbit - were taken away.
The animals had had no exercise area and the vet found they had probably been confined to their cages for their whole lives.
Adrian Burtoft, defending Fox, told the court she was very close to the animals and had names for each of them.
But he added that at the time of the incident things had "got on top of her".
He said: "She was looking after her father, her son, and her grandson, and had had a bad bout of flu. Things just got on top of her. At the time she thought she could cope, but in hindsight she couldn't."
He said it had been distressing for Fox and she didn't intend to keep animals again.
Fox, who wiped tears away throughout the hearing, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to ensure the welfare of animals.
District Judge Naomi Redhouse handed Fox a 12-month conditional discharge, ordered her to pay 500 towards costs, and banned her from keeping rabbits or guinea pigs for two years.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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