Dog left to starve to death in Leeds house
- Published
A man has been jailed for leaving his dog to starve to death in a house and then dumping its body in a cemetery.
Mason Medford, 18, of Bellbrook Grove, Harehills, Leeds, left Leo, the Staffordshire bull terrier, locked in a room for at least four weeks.
He only returned to the property on Clifton Grove when Leo was dead because "it had growled at him".
Medford was jailed for 18 weeks and banned from keeping animals for life by magistrates in Leeds.
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Medford was due to appear at court on 14 August but failed to appear and the case was heard in his absence.
He was arrested under warrant on Monday and sentenced at Leeds Magistrates' Court for causing unnecessary suffering to the dog and failing to meet its needs.
The court heard Medford got Leo from friends, who themselves had bought him from someone in York.
Efforts had been made to return the dog, who had a microchip embedded, to its original owner in Newport, South Wales, but they refused to take the animal back.
RSPCA Inspector Sarah Mason said: "He literally abandoned this dog to die.
"He shut him in a room with no food or water and didn't come back until he was dead.
"Veterinary evidence found that he had suffered for a minimum of four weeks, eventually suffering multiple organ failure.
"The house was disgusting, there was faeces and urine everywhere, and splatters of blood.
"What Leo went through during that time doesn't bear thinking about."
Insp Mason said the dog was found wrapped in a towel inside a suitcase in Harehills Cemetery.