A 74-year-old woman has been sentenced to a suspended 36-week jail term for causing unnecessary suffering to dogs at the puppy farm she ran in the Forest.

Margaret Davies, formerly of Awre Road, Blakeney, but now of Amhurst Crescent, Barry, South Wales, admitted five animal welfare charges and had already been banned from keeping dogs at a previous court hearing.

On Monday (March 27), at Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court, District Judge Nicholas Wattam told Davies the interim ban was now being made permanent for the rest of her life.

He ruled that no application could be made to lift or vary the ban for 20 years.

The judge also told Davies that in addition to the compensation order of £17,820 made against her last year to cover the cost of kennelling and veterinary treatment for the dogs – a bill that has still not been paid – she would also have to pay prosecution costs and a mandatory surcharge of £9,104.11 within six months.

As part of the sentence the judge also ordered Davies to be subject to a 12 week electronically tagged home curfew from 7pm-6am each night.

The prosecution was brought by the Forest Council.

Barrister Greg Gordon, representing the council, explained that the local authority had received reports that Davies had been running an unlicensed puppy farm at her home at Hagloe House in Blakeney which resulted in council officers and police officers attending the property on July 1, 2021 with a search warrant.

The police found a large number of dogs on the property, many with litters, which confirmed to them that unlicensed breading of puppies was being undertaken.

Davies had not been charged with this offence as under the terms of the Welfare Act the conditions that the dogs were being kept were considered to be far more serious.

Mr Gordon explained that a farm shed had been converted into kennels and was home to two Corgis, three terriers and a Samoyed. There was an overpowering and acrid smell of urine and faeces, which got worse the further into the building the inspectors went.

He added that the central walkway in the building was surrounded by separate pens and was covered in bedding which was covered in faeces. The concrete floor had a very thin layer of shredded paper on it. There was no clean or comfortable bedding provided and there was no access to water.

The court was told that in a second barn, which was much worse than the first, with poor natural light, there were 12 dogs -  four French bulldogs, four Schnauzers and four terriers.

Mr Gordon said: “What appears to have happened in the first barn is that the dogs were rotated from one pen to another rather than cleaning them. The empty pens showed that they hadn’t been cleaned for some time.

“In the second barn, it had even poorer natural light, with the 12 dogs being housed in enclosed kennels, and four Schnauzers and four terriers, housed in open-fronted kennels.

“The bulldogs were in enclosed pens which did not get a throughput of fresh air which resulted in the barn becoming extremely hot.

“None of the dogs had access to water, despite the hot conditions. There was just one bowl of water in the barn and it was contaminated with faeces.

“Inside the main dwelling house there was a Corgi with a litter of eight puppies, a Schnauzer with a litter of puppies.  One of the Corgi puppies was immediately seized by the inspectors, as it was unresponsive and lifeless.

“The Corgi and her puppies were placed in front of an Aga which was very hot and being in the month of July, it was very hot, and the animals had no escape from the heat.”

The court heard that the following day, July 2, 2021, Davies was served with an improvement notice, but she had made little effort to comply by the time the inspectors returned 14 days later.

The court was told that in total 33 dogs were removed, six of them were signed over by Davies and 27 were seized from the property by the council, including two litters of puppies. Two puppies from these litters died despite being treated by a local vet. The rescued dogs were initially fostered by local volunteers and later rehomed by Forest of Dean Dog Rescue.

Aled Owen, defending, told the court that Davies is a farmer’s wife and, like many in the agricultural industry, had been told the only way to survive in the 21st century was to diversify.

“Consequently Davies chose to begin dog breeding to help the farm’s finances to diversify from just being a dairy farm. The new venture thrived during its early days, but over time Davies began to struggle with the raft of new regulations as they were introduced,” said Mr Owen.

“Davies increasingly found the paperwork side of the business more and more difficult, which coincided with her husband becoming ill at around the time of the visit of the inspectors and the loss of a younger family member.

“Davies admits that there were issues that needed to be attended too, but she was juggling so much in her private life that something had to give. It was the dogs that suffered and this error of judgement has led her to this court appearance today.

“This is not an excuse, but puts Davies’ offending in context of the structural failures in the businesses that were being carried out on the farm. She is now fully retired and is preparing to move back to Pembrokeshire, where her family live.

“Davies needs to remain in the community and not be sent to prison, as she is a carer and a child-minder for other family members.”

Mr Owen concluded: “Davies was a woman who had been undertaking this kind of work for a number of years, but when it came to the introduction of new legislation, she began to be left behind. While the world moved on, she hadn’t moved with it, and this is why she is facing the consequences today.”

Davies pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a seven year-old French Bulldog, Winston by failing to get veterinary treatment for a variety of conditions and a similar charge involving another French Bulldog, three year old ‘Amelia,’ by failing to get treatment for tumours and blindness in one eye.

Davies also admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a seven-year-old Schnauzer, ‘Nathalie,’ by failing to provide veterinary treatment for severe and painful periodontitis which led to 20 teeth having to be extracted.

She also admitted failing to meet the needs of 27 dogs and puppies in her care by failing to provide adequate drinking water, clean bedding, a suitable diet and protection from pain, suffering, injury and disease on July 1, 2021.

Judge Wattam told Davies: “You were running a commercial enterprise. You attempted to minimise your offending and tried to shift the blame and minimise your responsibility for the dogs.

“It remains the case that you ill-treated these dogs within a commercial context. The conditions in the barns in which you kept them was clearly unacceptable.

“This is a case where there was prolonged ill-treatment with the animals in your care and this continued, despite being given advice from animal welfare officers.

“The conditions which the animals were kept in caused serious injury to a number of dogs, three in particular that formed part of the charges.

“The custody threshold has been crossed and therefore I am sentencing you to a prison term totalling 36 weeks, which will be suspended for 18 months. This is because there is a prospect of rehabilitation, not least because you will not be breading dogs.”

The prosecution was brought by the Forest of Dean District Council’s street warden team with the assistance of the counter fraud and enforcement unit after receiving information from Naturewatch.org.

Damion Collins, the community safety lead at the council, said: “We must do all we can to prevent animals being subjected to such suffering and I would like to thank everyone involved in investigating this case, and bringing this successful prosecution.

“No animal should have to suffer. Whoever is looking after an animal has the responsibility to ensure the animal is protected, kept free from pain and nurtured in a safe environment.”