22 December 2023 , 23:25
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A cruel father and son have been banned from owning animals after they superglued their dog’s lips back together.
Robert Mills, 66, and Jack Mills, 22, used a strong commercial adhesive in a horrific and selfish DIY effort to patch up their Terrier’s wounds after they put him through an illegal fox hunt. But after being caught, the pair were handed a suspended prison sentence and told to rehome all their other animals and give up their five dogs to the RSPCA.
Their Patterdale terrier Fudge suffered gruesome injuries after they forced them onto an illegal fox hunt. But then lied and tried to claim they came after attacks from a badger or a rabbit. Police raided their home after an RSPCA investigation and also found a lurcher with extensive scars across its face, a large part of its tongue missing and a weeping nailbed on one of its paws.
Incriminating messages - including a photo of a smiling Jack posing with a dead fox - were found during examinations of their mobile photos. The father and son, both bricklayers from Elham near Canterbury, Kent, each admitted to two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and have now been banned from owning animals for five years.
Folkestone Magistrates' Court heard police raided their home in January as part of an RSPCA investigation known as Operation Aurora. Officers found five dogs in an outbuilding kept in individual kennels with inadequate bedding and two of them - a lurcher called Rose and Patterdale terrier Fudge - were immediately seized.
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Recounting the notes of an expert veterinarian who examined the animals, prosecutor Janet Patel told magistrates that Fudge was found to have suffered significant damage to his face and head and was missing several front teeth. "The person caring for Fudge cut off some tissue, used commercial superglue to try and repair degloved tissue on her face and did not administer any pain medication," Ms Patel added.
She continued: "There was damage to the skin of Rose's lower jaw with the site of a deep tear or cut visible on the lower jaw and a loss of the lip margin contiguity. A significant amount of the tongue had been lost in a surgical or traumatic incident. The lesions are consistent with those that could be received in a fight between this dog and a large mammal such as a dog, fox, or badger."
Folkestone Magistrates' Court heard police raided their home in January as part of an RSPCA investigation known as Operation Aurora (Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)The vet added that a nail was missing on Rose's left paw that was oozing fluid and clearly causing pain to the dog. Messages shared between Robert and Jack described the dogs being used to hunt foxes, with records from their phones indicating that Fudge was harmed in November 2021.
The vet added: "The entries, dated 16.11.2021, lead me to believe that Fudge was involved in a fight with a mammal such as a fox, large dog, or badger. The use of the word 'hanging' implies the lower jaw has been degloved to some extent, leaving the tissue literally hanging," the vet added. Super glue has been used to try and put it back together and, secondly, some of the flesh has been cut away."
This referred to a message saying: "I just cut a bit of The person caring for Fudge cut off some tissue, used commercial super glue to try and repair the degloved tissue and did not administer any medication," the vet concluded. Another message discovered by officers read: "Had any joy with the fox?" A photo of a dead fox was also shared with the words: "Went out this morning, Fudge killed it."
Though still legal in Northern Ireland, fox hunting was banned in England, Scotland and Wales in 2004. Ms Patel added that the pair's messages to each other betrayed that they were not killing the animals humanely.
"That is the language of both Jack and Robert tracking and killing foxes, and it is not them flushing a fox out so that it can be killed humanely with a pistol," she said. "Both Jack and Robert Mills have shown deliberate disregard for the welfare of animals by placing them in situations where they sustained these horrific injuries."
When questioned by police, Robert Mills said the dogs' facial injuries had occurred when Rose and Fudge encountered a badger in the garden and that both dogs had been attacked by a rabbit. But his son contradicted that claim in an interview - saying that neither dog had ever come across a badger. Sam Harkness, defending the Mills, told the court the pair were remorseful, saying: "Mr [Robert] Mills says he has owned dogs all his life.
"He deeply regrets his actions and Mr Mills Junior says this is a steep learning curve. They are both devastated that they have been involved in these proceedings, but they have cooperated."
The two charges both Robert and Jack Mills admitted related to Fudge's facial injury and the wound to Rose's foot, which was established to have been sustained in the days before the police visit in January this year.
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During a discussion about the prospect of both defendants being banned from keeping animals, the pair were seen intensely shaking their heads. However, after lengthy deliberations, chairwoman of the bench Patricia Light handed down punishments including a ban on owning animals for five years. She also handed the pair a suspended prison sentence and fined them more than £1,300.
"For these offences we have come to the decision that they have broken the custody threshold because there is more than one dog with deliberate suffering," Ms Light said. "The fact that you have access to a vet and financial means to pay for treatment and yet still did not seek treatment shows deliberate disregard for the welfare of the animals.
"For each of you we are imposing 23 weeks custody, suspended for two years. You will also each complete 150 hours of unpaid work and we are ordering that you both pay £500 in costs and a £154 surcharge each. We are also granting a deprivation order for Fudge and Rose and the RSPCA will seize your other dogs.
"We are also granting a disqualification order for both of you in relation to owning, keeping, or participating in controlling or transporting any animals for five years, [and] no application may be made to appeal this for two.”