TRIBUTES are being paid to a Newport woman who spent 50 years devoted to the welfare of animals.

Bernice Jones, who died last Thursday aged 80, spent the last 16 years of her life running Gwent Animal Rescue, at Llanhennock, which she founded in 1986.

Graham Phillips, who worked with Mrs Jones, has taken over the running of the centre for the time being.

He said: "I was at her bedside in hospital until just before she died. I came home to see to the animals and the hospital rang me with the news."

Mr Phillips said Mrs Jones had gone into hospital after suffering a stroke. "Most people thought she was still in her 60s," he said, because she was still so lively. And she was active until the end, organising a Christmas fair at Newport's Holiday Inn to raise money for animals from her hospital bedside, Mr Phillips said.

He said Mrs Jones had begun her career in caring for animals in the 50s, working for the RSPCA.

And in the 60s she founded Newport Animal Centre in Ringland, where she homed 1,500 animals a year.

In 1985, however, Mrs Jones hit the headlines when she was sacked from her job as Gwent secretary of the RSPCA after being accused of overcrowding the kennels at Ringland.

Mr Phillips said: "She had a keen anti-destruction policy unless animals needed to be put down for medical reasons."

It was when she was sacked that she set up Gwent Animal Rescue. Mrs Jones was also a keen animal rights campaigner.

In the 70s she campaigned against the export of live animals and collected several thousand names on a petition.

And in the early 90s, she campaigned against the Dangerous Dogs Act and collected 10,000 signatures on another petition.

Mrs Jones also successfully campaigned for fishing to be banned at Newport's Tredegar House because tackle left there was killing the swans.

Her funeral will take place after a post mortem examination has been held.