Owner ignored bulldog’s wounds after ear cropping procedure left dog in agony

Babyface, a six-month old XL bully type breed, suffered from infected suture wounds after undergoing the procedure, which is illegal in the UK. Her owner, Jade O’Brien, claimed the canine was ear cropped abroad and said she didn’t take her to a vet for treatment as she knew “she would get into trouble”.

O’Brien (D.o.B 08.08.1987), of Ack Lane, Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a dog in that she failed to provide adequate veterinary care for the wounds under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. She appeared for sentencing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on March 8.

As well as the disqualification, magistrates imposed an 18-month community order on the defendant, who was told to attend 30 rehabilitation activity days.

Another defendant has pleaded guilty to an animal welfare offence and will be sentenced at a later date.

RSPCA inspector Beth Fazakerley said in a witness statement presented to the court that she went to Aspen Valley Kennels near Accrington on September 1, 2021 to examine two dogs who had been seized by police as part of an investigation under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.

One of the canines was Babyface, whose ears had been recently cropped. They were prominently scarred from the sutures applied as part of the procedure and a staff member confirmed that when she arrived at the kennels two weeks before she was suffering with open wounds to both ears.

Inspector Fazakerley stated: “You could clearly see multiple horizontal scars and I was told that when she was seized she still had sutures that were cutting into her skin due to how inflamed and infected her ears were.”

When the inspector spoke to O’Brien at her home later that month, the defendant claimed the dog was imported from the U.S and she was bought with her ears already cropped.

She administered one dose of antibiotics to Babyface before the police seized the dog from her home along with another female bully breed.

“O’Brien informed me that she bought Babyface from America as she buys her dogs from there and she said she likes the cropped-eared look,” added the inspector. “She said she’d only had Babyface a few days and she’d bought her with her ears already cropped.

“I asked if the dog had seen a vet and she said she didn’t want to take her as she knew she would get in trouble. But she’d asked her gardener, who breeds dogs, for help and he provided her with some antibiotics.”

After she was seized, Babyface was taken to a vets where her sutures were removed and she was treated with painkillers as well as antibiotics.

A vet’s expert report stated the wounds on each of the dog’s ear pinnas appeared to be less than a week old and were severely infected with a pus-like discharge. The sutures had become too tight and were cutting into the surrounding ear tissue.

“Most surgical procedures involving the placement of sutures require them to be removed 10 days after the surgical procedure is performed or this can lead to the ears reacting to the sutures as foreign bodies with secondary bacterial infection, creating an acute inflammation with hot, swollen, painful tissues and discharge,” said the vet, who concluded that Babyface would have been in pain for at least five days as she had not received any pain-killing medication.

Babyface was moved into the care of RSPCA Southport, Ormskirk and District Branch on September 15, 2021 and staff there will now begin a search to find loving new owners for her.

In mitigation, the court was told that O’Brien had been influenced and she has health issues. She was also ordered to pay £400 court costs and a victim surcharge of £95. The magistrates made deprivation orders on Babyface and the other bully breed dog.

Speaking after the case, inspector Fazakerley said: “When we took Babyface into our care her wounds were starting to heal as the sutures had been taken out. But she still had scars going down from where they had cut into her ear. It was upsetting to see, but the branch staff in Southport have done a lot of work on her and she has come on so well.

“Ear cropping is all about image and owners who do this to their dogs or take on ownership when this procedure has already been done don’t seem to realise the repercussions for the animals in terms of how it affects their behaviour or the dreadful pain they go through.”