Concerns have been raised by animal cruelty charities that coronavirus restrictions may have hidden offending in the North East as convictions fall.
Last year, 45 cases were brought against people in our area over accusations of cruelty to animals, and 29 resulted in a conviction - one of which was the case of Douglas Oliphant and Michelle Wilkinson, who kept ducks and chickens in plastic recycling crates covered with netting and rabbit hutches in their two-bedroom, mid-terraced house in Lynemouth.
The pair also kept a dog and two cats in "inadequately small" cages, which didn't have a clean supply of fresh drinking water nor suitable bedding. The couple, of Dalton Avenue, in Lynemouth, were banned from keeping fowl for 12 months and were each given a 12-month conditional discharge at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court.
