This:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090513/tuk-overweight-dog-lands-man-in-court-6323e80.html

I'm glad that animal welfare is being taken more seriously.

Certainly sounds more like a case of pure neglect to me! If he wanted to help his dog he could have got someone to walk it for him but obviously made No attempt to do anything...not even clean the poo up in the flat...Yuck! Poor dog is better off out of it all. Sounds like it never went out side.
Aileen

i'm fed up reading or seeing on telly,people who refuse to acknowledge what harm they are doing to their animals by wilfully overfeeding them,feeding them a lot of junk and/or giving them no excercise.these people always say that they love their animals so much that they can't refuse them anything.what a load of rubbish!if they truly loved their animals they'd care enough to want them to be as fit and healthy as possible.and to allow faeces and urine to be laying around every room is disgusting laziness.there are enough ways to educate yourself on proper care of an animal-champdogs for one-that ther is no excuse for it.

I actually may feel differently to the others, I feel that this man's mental health needs looking at.  It is not normal to leave your house like that and maybe the taking away of his dog could lead sadly to further things.

Think this guy definitely needs help.

It was on our local news and is in my city. The man failed to attend court and was found guilty in his absence, he will be charged once he is located..
From what i understand he does suffer from MHA, but that is no excuse to treat a dog like this. He said the only thing he felt he did wrong was 'give him too many treats'.. That is taken from the news report on TV yesterday.

Collies in a flat with a man who doesn't exercise them enough is a receipe for an overweight dog in itself, why do people like this have high energy dogs to start with, who sells them to these people? That also needs looking into.

It's a shame if seeing faeces on the floor and the state of the flat that they did not seize the dogs there and then, it's not just exercise it is living in filth, the place sounds like an unkept dog kennel.

What good really will a fine do, I think there are enough grounds to take the dogs and find them a good home. If it were just an overfeeding issues from an over zealous owner then that can be worked on, but keeping dogs in a filthy home I'd have the dogs out of there myself.

The DW was interviewed on TV and she said as much as she has seen some nasty cases of neglect and the horrors of seeing some homes this was the worse in this situation..
They showed on TV the state of the flat as well. Yuck is all i can say..

They are not sure if the dog will be rehomed or will stay in kennels for the remainder of its life, waiting on the courts to decide on that.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4365576.Brighton_man_facing_jail_for_dangerously_overfeeding_dog/?ref=mr

Our local paper on the report.

> From what i understand he does suffer from MHA, but that is no excuse to treat a dog like this

I neither agree or disagree that this man is guilty, but if he is suffering from a mental health condition then that is a valid excuse An awful shame for the dog but not entirely the mans fault

I agree in some situations, all depends on the what MH condition he is suffering from and how debilitating it is for him. The report from what i recall states that he was ill as well and was going to seek advice from the vet. Now if he were ill and it seems that he knows what he did was wrong and had no intention of wanting to cause the dog harm why not call someone if he couldn't walk the dog, he must of had someone in to bring in shopping for the dog to be fed in the first place.

I also think that there have been some failings on this man by other parties, but lets not get into that on here, its the welfare of the dog we are talking about.