A dog-owner dropped his appeal against a ten-year ban from keeping animals after a judge warned him his sentence could be altered to a jail term.

Timothy McLees, 32, had been convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to a litter of Staffordshire Bull terrier puppies by putting coloured elastic bands round their legs as a means of identification.

The bands, which tightened, caused fur loss and grooves in the animals’ legs and one puppy suffered poor blood supply to its paw, making it feel cold.

Bradford Crown Court heard McLees did not buy identification collars for the animals because they were too expensive.

The puppies and their mother were all found by an RSPCA inspector when she was called to an address in Rothesay Terrace, Great Horton, Bradford, last September.

The puppies were being kept in a home-made pen in an attic room which was described as being in a terrible state with an overwhelming smell of excrement. The pen contained dried dog food, but no water and there were empty food bowls and tins in the eight-foot by ten-foot room.

Prosecutor Nigel Hamilton said the inspector found a chart on the wall with various colours corresponding to the bands around the puppies’ legs.

McLees, now of Ann Place, Little Horton, Bradford admitted owning the animals and said he had been away from the house for three days setting up a photographic studio.

Bradford Crown Court heard that all the animals had fleas and one of them needed treatment for an inflammatory skin disorder.

McLees admitted the offence and was sentenced by Bradford magistrates in April to 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was also banned from keeping any animals for ten years.

Although McLees signed over six of the puppies to the RSPCA at the time he had hoped to get back the bitch and one of the puppies, but the magistrates made a deprivation order against him in respect of those two animals.

McLees had planned to appeal against the deprivation and disqualification orders during yesterday’s Crown Court hearing but withdrew it after Recorder Carl Gumsley indicated his sentence could be altered to a prison term of about 12 weeks.

McLees was ordered to pay £250 in costs for the appeal.

After the case RSPCA inspector Carol Neale said: “This dog and her puppies were living in absolute squalor when the RSPCA intervened.

“They had no access to water and limited access to food.”