Puppies found surrounded by faeces and suffering from 'chronic diarrhoea' at 'squalid' farm

A woman who kept more than 20 dogs and puppies in squalid conditions has been banned from keeping dogs for three years.

Several dogs belonging to Jamie-Lee Harper, 36, were found matted and dirty and left to sleep on concrete floors in damp bedding surrounded by faeces inside stables and farm outhouses.

Others showed evidence of parasitic infection, ill-health and dental decay.

Inspectors from the Scottish SPCA made the discovery during an inspection at Acre Farm in Glenboig, Lanarkshire, in November 2022.

They found a total of 22 dogs roaming free on the site. The youngest puppies were four or five weeks old.

The dogs were discovered in stables and sheds as well as an open kennel area.

In one shed, which housed three dogs, the bedding was insufficient, with three blankets found damp and soaked with urine.

A litter of six cocker spaniel puppies, around ten weeks old, were also found alongside two water bowls contaminated with faeces and wood shavings.

They later tested positive for Giardia, a parasitic disease associated with chronic and acute diarrhoea in dogs.

A Great Dane and her four to five-week-old puppies were being kept in a barren, cold environment with no bedding or blankets

Two female Akitas were found; one of them was limping and in pain, suffering from patchy fur loss.

All the dogs were examined and removed to a Scottish SPCA Rescue and Rehoming Centre for ongoing care.

Harper, of Clydebank, was sentenced at Airdrie Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to charges of causing unnecessary neglect and suffering to animals.

Andrew Laing, procurator fiscal for South Strathclyde, said: “Jamie-Lee Harper demonstrated an appalling disregard for the well-being of animals in her care

“The conditions that many of the dogs were being kept in were shocking.

“This was a case of indiscriminate neglect where animals were subjected to unnecessary suffering.

“We take this type of offending very seriously, and we will always prosecute where there is a sufficiency of evidence, and it is in the public interest to do so.”