ROTHERHAM, SOUTH YORKSHIRE: LEE DOBSON
Dobson admitted to a charge under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 after being taken to court by the RSPCA.The decomposing bodies of the five deceased animals were discovered in June 2025 when police officers visited Dobson’s address to investigate a report that dead dogs had been found there.
RSPCA Inspector Leanne Booth, who attended and gave writen evidence in the case, said: “The lounge area that we were standing in was untidy and cluttered with items indicating that dogs lived here and had been inside the property.” “There was a large, well-built double dog cage in the middle of the room, it had a dirty faeces-covered bed on one side and faeces on the floor on the other side.
“The back door leading into the garden was open, directly outside the back door in a blue plastic bag was the badly decomposing body of a French bulldog named Effie.” “The body still had some skin and fur on but the internal organs had liquified.
The smell was horrendous, as was the sight.
The police informed me that when they had attended, this body was in the outhouse in the back with a piece of bedding.
“There was a foul odour in the property, a smell of faeces, death and a smell I associate with properties that have a large number of flies in them.” The body of another dog, which was unidentifiable apart from a rib cage and shoulder blades, was also discovered in the outhouse surrounded by boxes and shoes.
At the top of the garden were three dog kennels with solid runs attached covered in faeces and torn up items.
Officers also found foul-smelling black buckets containing a brown lumpy liquid.
“The floor of the first kennel was completely covered in compacted faeces which had dried and crumbled under foot.
On top of a shoe box was the skeleton of a Dachshund type dog called Betty who had no hair, skin or internal organs.
There was also a second skull and other bones belonging to another dog which could not be identified.” “In a boxed-in sleeping area in another kennel were the remains of a female Pocket Bully type dog called Karma.
Her body was reduced to a skeleton apart from skin on parts of her skull and feet.” “The remains were taken to a vet but were too badly decomposed to be examined.”
