'Ignorant' Birmingham man, who starved dogs, is spared prison

Nov 21 2009 by Ross McCarthy, Birmingham Mail

A BIRMINGHAM man who starved two of his dogs, causing one to die, has avoided being sent to prison immediately.

Doniik Lindsey, 23, formerly of Ridgmont Croft, Ridgeacre, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to four charges of animal cruelty and was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.

He was also banned from keeping any pet for five years and ordered to pay £2,500 costs by Deputy District Judge Tindal who told him he had missed being jailed “by a whisker”.

He told him: “The most troubling thing about this case is that you were at home while two dogs were effectively starving to death in your back garden.

“You allowed your dogs to starve and it was only by chance that one of them was caught just about early enough for it to survive.”

Nick Sutton, prosecuting, told ­Birmingham Magistrates’ Court that Lindsey had taken a female Staffordshire Bull Terrier and a black and a dead tan German Shepherd cross to a vet.

He said the Staffordshire Bull Terrier was very emaciated and that her eye lids were so swollen you could hardly see her eyes.

Her ribs could be seen clearly as well as her whole skeletal structure and she had very little muscle or fat.

Mr Sutton said the dog also had a large puncture wound on her head probably caused by a bite from another dog.

He said the other animal was also extremely thin with sunken eyes.

It was estimated that the dogs had suffered for several weeks.

Alex Atkins, defending, said it was not a case of the defendant, who now lived in West Bromwich, deliberately starving the dogs and that the offences were committed out of ignorance rather than malice.