AN RSPCA officer who had already removed a malnourished dog from an Accrington address returned four months later and found another dog in a similar condition.

Blackburn magistrates heard Sarah Jane Calvert accepted responsibility for the first animal, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross bred called Lilly.

Calvert and her partner, Anne-Marie Shaw, were both charged with offences relating to the second dog, the same breed called Honey.

Calvert, 31, and Shaw, 29, of Richmond Avenue, Accrington, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to Honey, failing to provide her with a suitable diet and failed to protect her from pain, injury, suffering and disease due to a chronic skin condition and poor hind limb gait.

Calvert also pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to Lilly by failing to address the cause of her poor bodily condition.

Calvert was made subject to a community order for 12 months with 25 days rehabilitation requirement. Shaw was made subject to a community order for 12 months with 10 days rehabilitation. Both were fined £50 and ordered to pay £150 costs and £85 victim surcharge. They were both disqualified from keeping any animals for 10 years.

Chris Wyatt, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said an inspector responded to information from a member of the public about a dog in poor condition. Lilly was found to be in very poor condition.

Calvert told the inspector; “I have been feeding her but I think she is dying. I’ve no money to take her to the vet.”

The dog’s weight was 10.2 kg when she was examined by the vet and two weeks later she weighed 12.2 kg.

“He ideal weight should have been 14.4 kg,” said Mr Wyatt. “The vet’s opinion was the dog’s emaciated condition was because it did not have access to a suitable diet over a long period of time.”

Mr Wyatt said the inspector spent some time trying to interview Calvert and eventually caught up with her four months later.

“She found Honey at the property in a very poor bodily state,” said Mr Wyatt. “The vet said there was no explanation for the poor condition other than inadequate diet.”

When she was interviewed about Honey, Calvert said her eye infection and skin problems could have been caused because the dog liked rolling around in bleach.

“The RSPCA was concerned about the suffering of these dogs,” said Mr Wyatt. “There was four months between offences and you would have thought they would have been more alert to the problems of the second dog.”

Paul Huxley, defending Calvert, said she had mental health issues.

“She bitterly regrets everything that has happened,” said Mr Huxley.

Peter King, defending Shaw, said it had been a case of incompetence rather than deliberate lack of care and he could not oppose the making of a disqualification order.

“She doesn’t have the relevant skills to care for animals,” he said.