Pair kept 69 animals in family home
18.05.12
A husband and wife with five children kept 69 animals, including 56 large dogs, as family pets in their four-bedroom semi-detached home, a court has heard.
When the RSPCA raided the house where James and Nicola Hood lived with their young family they were "swamped by a sea of dogs" in the living room and "too many to count" in the back garden.
In addition to 56 dogs, including huskies, German shepherds, rottweilers and Staffordshire bull terriers, they also found three cats living in the bathroom, six birds including love birds in various dirty cages, and four chinchillas.
They also found one of the couple's children, just nine months old, in a bed whose sheets were soiled with bird droppings, the court heard.
Mr Hood, 40 and his 31-year-old wife admitted nine animal cruelty charges at Taunton Magistrates' Court on Friday relating to animals kept at their home in Queen's Road, Minehead, Somerset.
Magistrates were told that the majority were animals in danger of being put down by owners who could not cope with them, but that they themselves had become overwhelmed by the number of animals in their home.
Source: Rutland and Stamford Mercury