A MOTHER and daughter who mistreated a dog have been banned from keeping any animal for five years.

Jennifer East, 53, and Sarah Jane East, 33, both of Lambeth Street, Blackburn, admitted cruelty to the animal when they appeared before Blackburn magistrates.

Chris Wyatt, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said a vet who operated on the animal after it was taken into RSPCA care removed a growth weighing two kilogrammes from between the dog's foreleg and ribcage.

The vet, Mr Martin Gabbut, from the Abbeydale surgery, Blackburn, said in his report to the animal charity that the swelling must have been growing for two to three years and was affecting the dog's gait. The animal was also suffering from a long-term flea infestation, which had caused it to lose most of the fur on its rump.

Mr Wyatt said, when questioned by the RSPCA, the defendants claimed the dog had belonged to Mrs East's mother who had recently died and the two women had only had it a matter of weeks. They said they intended taking it to a vet and were trying to get the money together.

But he said evidence from Blackburn with Darwen Council's neighbourhood nuisance officer and from a former next door neighbour of the two women suggested they had had the animal several years.

Mr Wyatt added: "It's the view of the RSPCA that both defendants lied about the time they had had the dog."

He told the bench failure to take it to a vet had caused the dog unnecessary suffering.

Both women declined to say anything in their defence and were conditionally discharged for a year.

Each was ordered to pay prosecution costs of £310.

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