A Leeds man has been imprisoned for causing unnecessary suffering to a dog.
Warning: A picture of the dead dog, Leo, appears lower in this article.
Mason Medford, 19, was due to stand trial for three offences contrary to the Animal Welfare Act 2006, but failed to attend court on 14th August 2018. He was convicted in his absence and given the gravity of the offences a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The offences relate to Medford's treatment of a young Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Leo. Medford was given Leo by a couple he was friends with, when they found that the young pup didn't get along with their existing dog. On 26th November 2017 Medford took Leo home with a 25 kg bag of dog food, which he had been given by another friend of his.
Andrew Davidson, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said: "The case can be summed up very sadly but very simply. The defendant left Leo at the house in question, locked him in a room and never came back. He left him in the house without food and water and did not return to look after him at any point. When he finally did return he was deceased."
The Clifton Grove property was visited several times during Medford's absence by housing officer Sarah Blackburn. She reported that they found "squalid conditions through the property, rubbish and clothing and the kitchen was a disgusting state."
Emma Medford, the defendant's mother, provided a statement explaining how she had visited the property in January and found Leo dead outside the bathroom wrapped in a towel. She urged her son to "do the decent thing" and bury the dog.
Leo was found in the suitcase at Harehills Cemetery on 24th January 2018.
A postmortem confirmed Leo died as a result of multiple organ failure as his body shut down. He was "completely emaciated", weighed half of what he should and there was nothing in his stomach or intestines.
The vet carrying out the examination said: "He would have suffered greatly after not being fed adequately for four weeks."
When police questioned Medford he said he had left Leo alone because he didn't like the way he had growled at him.
Medford was sentenced to 18 weeks imprisonment and banned from keeping animals for life.
Speaking after the case, RSPCA inspector Sarah Mason said: "This was a really shocking incident to deal with and I’m glad that the court viewed it so seriously.
"Leo’s emaciated body had been crammed into a black suitcase, wrapped in a towel.
"When vets weighed him he was just 11.6 kg, he was literally a skeleton of a dog.
"The suffering Leo endured before he died must have been enormous."
The maximum sentence for animal cruelty is six months imprisonment, which seems woefully inadequate in a case like this.
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