St Helens dog owner sentenced after pet starved to death

A Merseyside woman who left her unattended dog to starve to death has been disqualified from keeping animals for five years.

Billie-Louise Elizabeth Lewis appeared at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, October 22 to be sentenced.

She was handed a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and was fined £120 and ordered to pay a £114 victim surcharge. She was also disqualified from keeping all animals for five years.

The 22-year-old, of Frodsham Drive, Blackbrook in St Helens, had previously pleaded guilty to one offence of causing unnecessary suffering to Hugo by failing to investigate and address his weight loss.

The body of two-and-a-half-year-old Hugo was found in the kitchen of Billie-Louise Elizabeth Lewis' home (Image: RSPCA)

Members of the public had reported concerns for a dog being left unattended at a property in St Helens on November 18, 2023. The RSPCA visited the address that day, and the following day, to leave seals on the doors and make enquiries in the area, including with Lewis’s relatives who lived nearby.

When RSPCA Inspector Joanne McDonald gained access to the house just two days later, she found Lewis’s dog, two-and-a-half-year-old Hugo, dead in the kitchen.

The body of two-and-a-half-year-old Hugo was found in the kitchen of Billie-Louise Elizabeth Lewis' home (Image: RSPCA)

In her witness statement to the court, Inspector McDonald said: "Upon entering the kitchen I was hit with a very strong smell and saw a black and tan male large bull breed laying dead on the floor. I also noticed there were numerous maggots on his body.

"[He] appeared extremely thin and I could easily see his spine, ribs and hindquarters. I saw two bowls down in the kitchen, one had a very slight amount of water in and the other was empty.

"I saw a dog bed on the floor which appeared to have been ripped apart. I could also see what appeared to be chew marks on the door frames. Faeces was seen by the back door.”

Hugo's body was taken to the RSPCA’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital to be checked by a vet.

In interview, Lewis said she hadn’t taken Hugo to see a vet because they said he needed exploratory surgery costing thousands of pounds. She also said she started feeding Hugo a mixture of pasta and various meat, which the vet said would not have been nutritionally balanced or meet his needs.

She said she'd stopped spending time with Hugo after he "went for" her brother a few weeks before, and that he was being left alone for long periods of time which had made him ‘depressed’.

Inspector McDonald added: "There was an extremely strong smell and there were what appeared to be hundreds of maggots on his body.

"He was in a high state of decomposition. The dog was found to be extremely thin."

The vet who examined Hugo’s body said he was "severely emaciated" and that he’d have suffered hunger, weakness and discomfort, and that he’d also have suffered mentally.

He had a body condition score of 1/9 (with one meaning emaciation and four being ideal while nine is obese) and his bones were visible without any fat or muscle over them.

The vet’s witness statement added: "The dog weighed 14.2kg. I would estimate a dog of this breed type and stature should weigh approximately 20-25kg as a conservative estimate, so this dog was at roughly 60% of his ideal weight or less."