A COUPLE who set up and ran a rescue centre for unwanted rabbits and guinea pigs have been convicted of animal cruelty offences.

Alan and Lynda Vernon have been banned for life from keeping any animals after Blackburn magistrates heard of the gruesome discovery made by RSPCA inspectors who visited their home in Lytham Road, Blackburn.

In a variety of filthy hutches the officers discovered the bodies of 17 rabbits and 12 guinea pigs in various stages of decomposition. There were two rabbits and two guinea pigs still living in the squalor and without food or water.

Alan Vernon, 48, and his wife Lynda, 42, each pleaded guilty to 10 offences of causing unnecessary suffering by omitting to act. As well as the life ban, they were each fined £250 and ordered to pay £350 prosecution costs to the RSPCA.

They were given a formal seven days to pay in full after Alan Vernon said he would come to court the following day and pay the total of £1,200. Chris Wyatt, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said the animals had all died without the Vernons making any attempt to obtain professional assistance.

When a vet inspected the hutches he found that while hay was present it was badly contaminated and all the water containers except one were empty. Mr Wyatt said that in running he voluntary refuge for unwanted animals the Vernons had taken in animals referred to them by Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary and the RSPCA.

"Clearly, having had dealings with these organisations, they could have contacted them for assistance if there was a problem," said Mr Wyatt. He said the main thrust of the RSPCA prosecution was not to punish but to make sure that no animals could suffer at the hands of the defendants in the future. Mr Peter Leyland, defending, said the couple had been married since 1982 and had two children. In the early 1990s the children had wanted pets and they had started to keep guinea pigs. Prior to that they had taken in a squirrel injured by a car and nursed it back to health. "That was their introduction to caring for homeless animals and they soon found that friends and acquaintances would bring animals to them," said Mr Leyland. "The more they did for animals the more their reputation grew and the more animals were brought to them."

He said that five or six years ago Mr Vernon had built a large shed which contained 25 individual hutches and with others in the garden they had kept up to 60 animals at any one time. They calculate that between three and four hundred animals had passed through their hands over the last five or six years.

Mr Leyland said that looking after so many animals had been time consuming and Mrs Vernon's involvement had caused friction in the marriage.

He said Mrs Vernon had coped well enough, despite working part-time, until her father became ill with cancer last year. Her mother had died previously and, as an only daughter, Mrs Vernon found herself committing more and more time to her father.

"She quite simply could not fit everything in," said Mr Leyland. In September they realised the animals were becoming sick and they resolved to try and rehouse them."

He said they advertised in several pet shops and while some animals were taken, not the numbers they had hoped. What the RSPCA found in January was an accumulation of the animals that had died over the previous four months.

Mr Leyland said the couple accepted they had not cleaned the animals out as often as they should or fed them as regularly as required. As far as Mrs Vernon was concerned it was always something she was going to do the next day," said Mr Leyland.

"These offences were not committed out of malice and they must surely have their hearts in the right place if they are prepared to start an animal sanctuary out of their own pockets."