A PENSIONER who was found to have 47 dogs on his premises when RSPCA inspectors went there has lost his appeal against a charge of causing unnecessary suffering to one of them.

The animal, a lurcher bitch, was unable to stand and when taken to a vet died shortly afterwards, Cardiff crown court heard.

Walford Rogers, 72, of Bevans Lane, Cwmbran, had been convicted by Newport magistrates of possessing a gin trap, using the trap and breaching an order requiring that he keep no more than 15 dogs.

He had been fined a total of 1,000 and ordered to pay 1,000 costs.

In addition he was banned from keeping dogs for ten years, but at Cardiff crown court that order was reduced to five years.

"Dogs are his life," said Judge Roderick Denyer.

The cost of the appeal was said to be 3,000 but the judge did not order Rogers to pay this sum after learning that his income was 125 a week.

Prosecutor David Elias said that when RSPCA inspectors, police officers and environmental health officers went to Rogers' premises they found a set gin trap close to a number of dogs.

Inspector Nicola Johnson of the RSPCA said: "The circumstances the dogs were being kept in were just not acceptable. There was little bedding and little water."

She said that on an earlier occasion she had taken the lurcher to a vet, Richard Smith in Cwmbran, and it was "weak and wobbly".

Mr Smith said the dog had anaemia which could have been caused by fleas and was dehydrated. Soon after the animal died.

Rogers told the court that the lurcher was very old, had water and didn't appear to be in pain.

"I'd had that dog 11 years after she was abandoned and I never mistreated her.

"I had full planning permission for all my kennels," he said.

He said he had found the trap near a rabbit hole and had put it on a kennel roof.

Since the earlier court hearing, he said, he had given away many of the dogs to a friend.

The court heard he had 34 previous convictions for causing animals unnecessary suffering.