February 2021 West London man banned from keeping animals for 5 years after letting his dogs to starve to death A West London man who left his dogs to starve to death has been banned from owning animals for five years. Sanjeev Gill, 45, from Southall, was sentenced at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, January 26 after he was found guilty of animal cruelty. An RSPCA investigation found both of Gill’s dogs were severely undernourished resulting in their death. A two-year-old Akita called Cuba, and a four-year-old German Shepherd named Max had been brought to an RSPCA Animal Hospital in November 2019 by Gill, the court heard. They were both dead at the time. He had claimed that one of the dogs had gone missing the day before and he then discovered the dogs dead in a communal area near his address, so took them to the RSPCA clinic where they were registered. Inspector Mike Beaman was called by hospital colleagues to inspect the situation and said: “Both dogs were extremely emaciated and given the lowest body score possible by the vet who examined them. “Cuba was 19.4kg and Max was 19.6kg, way below a healthy weight for these kinds of dogs.” The court heard how the vet said an average weight for an Akita is 45-59kgs and 30-40kgs for a German Shepherd. On examination of Max’s body, the vet said in a statement that his coat was very dirty and covered in mud, he didn’t have any obvious skin lesions and he had faeces stuck to his pelvis and hind limbs. Cuba’s coat was also caked in mud, and the tips of his ears and left thigh were damaged. A post-mortem carried out on the dog’s bodies did not reveal any underlying medical conditions which could have been the cause for their extreme malnourishment. Gill was sentenced to a community order for 12 months, with a condition of 160 hours of unpaid work for breaking the Animal Welfare Act 2006. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 costs, a £90 victim surcharge and was disqualified from keeping all animals for five years.