Animal welfare officers found 85 hutches in the back garden of Valerie and Michael Bayley’s Bristol home after concerned neighbours contacted the RSPCA
A couple have been prosecuted for keeping 109 rabbits in squalid conditions at their home - after claiming they are addicted to adopting the pets.
Animal welfare officers found 85 hutches in the back garden of Valerie and Michael Bayley’s home after concerned neighbours contacted the RSPCA.
Two dead rabbits were among the scores of underweight and malnourished animals, who were frantically scraping empty bowls for food.
The hutches were covered in droppings and inspectors described the filthy conditions as living “in squalor”.
Mrs Bayley compared her addiction to alcoholism and told inspectors: “I’m like an alcoholic, but with rabbits”.
The 61-year-old and her husband, 69, both pleaded guilty to five counts of animal cruelty when they appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court.
Magistrates were told how inspectors first visited their home in St Anne’s, Bristol, in July.
The charity rescued the majority of the pets, but when they returned a few weeks later the couple had replaced most of them.
Lindi Meyer, prosecuting, said on the second visit, improvements had been made to some of the hutches - but not to all of them.
“They could not move around without stepping in droppings - they had clearly not be cleaned for a very long time,” she said.
“The hutches were in sheds,which were very dark and a lack of natural light. They had significantly poor body conditions.
“The hutches were filthy - in squalor conditions.”
The court heard after issuing warnings the RSPCA inspected their home again in September, only to find more than 100 rabbits being subjected to the same conditions.
They had nowhere to run around and a lack of food and drink, Ms Meyer’s added.
Graham Arnall, defending the couple, said they had been put under a lot of extra strain over the summer due to Mrs Bayley’s mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, being taken into hospital.
He said: “The reality is I did go on a site visit on Tuesday, I only gave them an hour’s notice so they would have had trouble cleaning all 75 hatches before I turned up. Things had obviously improved.
“Faced with the possibility of not having any rabbits at all, she decided 20 rabbits is going to be her maximum.
“She will presumably get right down (to 20) before her sentence.
“She has no previous convictions, she has never been in trouble before. She’s been keeping rabbits since she was two and this is the first time she has been in trouble.”
Judge David Robinson adjourned the case until next month, so a pre-sentence report can be prepared.
He said it was very likely he would disqualify the couple from keeping caged animals
