A WOMAN accused of animal cruelty after dead puppies were found piled up in a wheelbarrow at her Bradford farm has seen her case dismissed by a district judge.

Julie Nunney, 54, of Tyersal Lane, had denied four charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and two of failing to ensure the needs of animals for which she was responsible.

The charges were brought by the RSPCA following a raid with police on the farm on the morning of September 24 last year.

Bernadette Nunney, 24, also of Tyersal Lane, remains on trial accused of the same six animal cruelty charges.

John Wilcock, 35, of the same address, has already pleaded guilty to the offences.

Leeds Magistrates’ Court had been shown video footage taken by RSPCA officers of the dead puppies plus others drinking water from a puddle and kennels littered with faeces.

A total of 43 dogs were seized from the premises, with 37 relating to the six charges brought against the defendants.

Veterinary surgeon Graham Codd told the court he had examined each dog seized from the premises apart from one.

He said the dead puppies found in the wheelbarrow had been found to have a gastrointestinal form of the Parvovirus, the symptoms of which include acute diarrhoea and vomiting.

He said the condition would typically make the animals ill for between two days and a week.

Referring to the dead dogs in the wheelbarrow, Julie Nunney said: “Those puppies were not there for more than 12 hours because other animals would have been infected.”

Mr Codd said: “It’s not credible that the dogs were found fit and healthy the previous evening and died the following morning.

“Parvovirus would not kill them that quickly. You’re talking perfectly healthy to dead in 16 hours. There aren’t many conditions that will do that.”

PC Jane Warren, then of West Yorkshire Police, told the court she had seized around 40 items from the farm during the police raid.

Among the items seized from Julie Nunney’s bedroom were dog licences and kennel club certificates, and diaries for 2008, 2009, and 2012 containing lists of dogs and prices.

From the farm office, a 2013 diary was seized, which PC Warren again said contained lists of sales of puppies and their prices, and a mobile phone which was said to have been used by Julie Nunney to send messages about selling dogs.

The RSPCA said the items proved she played a “supervisory or organisational role” in selling the dogs, but she said she kept the diaries for tax purposes and said that the dog licences were in the name of her dead husband, who she said passed away in July 2013.

She maintained that she was not responsible for the care of the dogs, saying that her presence at the farm on the day of the raid did not prove her guilt, rather that she was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

District judge Marie Mallon agreed that there was insufficient evidence to proceed in the trial against her.

Before yesterday’s evidence began, she had told the court she would be representing herself in the case after dispensing with the services of her solicitor, Clive Rees.

She also accused Judge Mallon of siding with the prosecution in the case.

She said: “You’re taking instructions from the prosecution, you’re working with them and rail-roading me.”

Judge Mallon described the claims as “ridiculous” and threatened her with expulsion from the rest of the proceedings.

The trial continues.

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