A man was condemned to a two-year jail term suspended for four years and fined €20,000 on Wednesday after being convicted of mistreating 23 dogs. He was also ordered to pay costs of almost €5,000 to the Association for Abandoned Animals, the Animal Welfare Directorate and the courts.
The court heard how the dogs were found in squalor and in a state of neglect, living in their own waste. Some had not been electronically chipped as required by law. Some were kept in cages so small, they might have been good only for rabbits.
A veterinary report exhibited in court described the scene: The