Any right-minded person will be horrified to learn that two puppies were left to starve to death by their 24-year-old owner.

The neglect of these helpless animals was horribly cruel and their suffering long and drawn out.

Photos taken by an RSPCA inspector depicted the dogs as in a “grotesque parody of sleep”, emaciated and coated in filth. The court was told no-one could fail to be moved by the dreadful scene.

Cases such as this are, of course, shocking but they are not, sadly, all that rare.

The familiar description of Britain as a nation of animal lovers is true only up to a point because the sad fact is that there are still too many people who take on pets and then treat them abominably.

Whether this is through selfishness, thoughtlessness or callousness, the end result is the same – appalling cases such as this one.

One of the ways to tackle this behaviour is to send out an unequivocal signal that it will not be tolerated.

By locking up the owner of the two puppies for four months and banning her from keeping animals for life, the magistrates have done just that.

It leaves no-one in any doubt how seriously the courts view such offences and the kind of punishment those responsible for them can expect.