A THREE-year-old Japanese Akita dog (pictured) was allowed to starve to death in what an RSPCA inspector described as the worst case he had seen in 26 years in the job.

Blackburn magistrates heard the dog weighed less than half the expected weight for the breed when it was taken from the rear yard of a house in Accrington Road, Blackburn.

And RSPCA inspector Stephen Greenhalgh, speaking after the case, said he was still haunted by the sight of the emaciated animal staggering towards him.

Mother-of-three Margaret Shirley Livesey, 34, of Monmouth Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to omitting to act, thereby causing unnecessary suffering.

Passing sentence, the chairman of the bench said that if it was not for the fact that Livesey was responsible for a small child, she would have gone to prison.

He also said they would have imposed the maximum fine if Livesey had not been in receipt of benefit.

She was fined £100 and ordered to pay £400 costs, which will be paid at £4 a week.

She was also banned for life from keeping any animal.

Chris Wyatt, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said inspectors had gone to the house and asked to see the dog. Livesey said the dog was in the yard and said she would go and get it.

She returned shortly afterwards and asked the inspectors to go and help because there was something wrong with the dog. The dog was struggling to get to its feet and leave the kennel. It was severely emaciated, with sores on its leg and all its bones could be seen, even through its coat.

The inspectors said the dog needed immediate treatment and Livesey said it had been ill for a while but she could not afford to take it to the vet.

"The dog could not stand and had to be carried out to the van," said Mr Wyatt.

The animal was hospitalised immediately but died the following day, at the beginning of December.

When interviewed, Livesey said she had owned the dog for about nine months but things started to go wrong when her partner left her in August.

"She said she could not afford to feed the dog and that in the last few weeks it had really gone down hill," said Mr Wyatt.

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