A WOMAN was today found guilty of a raft of animal cruelty offences against 37 dogs at a Bradford farm, including puppies left dead and dying in a wheelbarrow.

Bernadette Nunney, 24, of Tyersal Lane, had denied the offences during a trial at Leeds Magistrates Court, claiming she did not own dogs or any other animals.

She stood accused of 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.

John Wilcock, 36, of the same address, had pleaded guilty to five cruelty offences on the opening day of the trial.

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

The 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.

The trial had heard veterinary evidence that the dead puppies had been suffering a form of the Parvovirus, the symptoms of which include acute diarrhoea and vomiting.

The court was also shown footage from the BBC Panorama television programme filmed on September 9 last year, in which undercover reporters bought a puppy from Nunney.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus:

Bernadette Nunney and John Wilcock

She told the court yesterday she had acted as a carer for her grandad for four years before starting a self-employed cleaning business – Sparkling Cleaning Solutions – in June 2015.

She said she lived “on and off” at a caravan at the farm, including periods during August and September last year.

On the morning of the raid, she was arrested and taken to the police station where she gave a no comment interview on the advice of a solicitor.

She returned to the police station at a later date with another solicitor, but did not give a second interview.

In reference to the dead puppies in the wheelbarrow, she said: “I had never seen the puppies, I didn’t know they were there.”

To the other offences involving the dogs, she said: “I don’t own a dog, I’m not responsible for any animals.”

On her appearance in the BBC video, she said she was merely doing a favour for Wilcock.

“He said somebody had phoned his girlfriend and said somebody was coming to look at the dogs,” she said.

“He gave me all the information and told me what to say.”

When questioned by prosecutor Iain O’Donnell, she said she had “never once” been in the kennels on the farm and only had knowledge of the dogs because of information given to her by Wilcock.

On the video, she was heard to use the term “we”, saying: “We’ve got dogs, we don’t have time for puppies.”

Asked what she meant by the term, she said: “As a family, we have dogs. When I say we, I mean my family. They are not mine.”

When asked if the footage on the video was the one and only time she had ever helped Wilcock with the dogs she said: “Yeah”, adding: “I’ve been there while he’s done it, but I haven’t actually sold a dog.”

District Judge Marie Mallon said there were numerous “discrepancies” within Nunney’s evidence, and said the use of the term “we” in the BBC video was “very strong evidence implying knowledge of the dogs”.

She said Nunney had been given two opportunities to deny the offences to police but had not taken them, stating: “I draw the inference that nothing was said because you had no satisfactory explanation to give.”

She warned both defendants that the offences “well and truly tip over the custody threshold”.

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports on both defendants, and a medical report on Nunney, who, the court heard, had given birth to her first child five weeks ago.

The pair were released on conditional bail ahead of a sentencing hearing at the same court on Friday, November 18.

Nunney’s mother Julie Nunney, 54, also of Tyersal Lane, who was cleared of the six charges yesterday, was removed from the public gallery during the morning’s evidence after failing to heed a warning from the District Judge about speaking to her daughter during the trial.

She will not be allowed to attend the sentencing hearing next month.

After the case, RSPCA inspector Emma Ellis, who led the investigation, said: “We had lots of calls from puppy buyers who had bought dogs which had fallen very ill.

“After taking statements from the witnesses and gathering intelligence we joined the police to execute a warrant on the premises, owned by Julie Nunney, on September 24, 2015.

“We found dozens of dogs at the address, being kept in stables and make-shift kennels.

"But the one memory from that day - and one I’ll never be able to forget - was finding the collie puppies in the wheelbarrow.

“It was so sad to see their lifeless bodies bundled into the wheelbarrow but then, when we looked closer and spotted one of the little pups barely breathing buried underneath the dead bodies of her brothers and sisters, we leapt into action and rushed her to the vets.

"Unfortunately, like her littermates, it was too late for her and she later died.”

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