Man sentenced for cutting puppy ears
A man who admitted to cropping the ears of seven puppies, has been banned from keeping dogs and ordered to pay over £10,000 in costs.
Simon Davis from Bedworth was arrested last year on the 30th January, after the RSPCA and Warwickshire Police carried out a joint raid at his home address in Acacia Crescent, Warwickshire.
During the raid, they found seven kennels, in a converted garage building in his back garden, containing eight American Bulldogs.
Mr Davis bred and illegally cropped the ears of the Bulldogs, in order to sell them for thousands of pounds.
Ear-cropping is a painful cosmetic procedure, in which part of the ear is cut off with a knife or razor blade to make the dogs look fiercer.
The RSPCA gathered a range of evidence, including before and after photographs and medical appliances such as syringes, razor blades and forceps were seized from both properties.
Mr Davis promoted his business on instagram under the name 'Lions Lair Kennels', selling the puppies for between £3,500 or £7,000.
Watch the video footage below to see some of the evidence from the raid.
A further nine American Bulldogs were found at Mr Davis's mother's house nearby on Chelsey Road, including two pregnant dogs and six with cropped ears.
Coventry Magistrates' Court sentenced Davis to a ban on keeping and dealing in dogs (to be reviewed in 15 years time) and was ordered to pay £10,973 in costs, given an 18-weeks prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 160 hours unpaid work.
The RSPCA urge people to never buy a dog with cropped ears, and have taken seven of the dogs into care to be re-homed.
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