‘Good Samaritan’ Edith Smith waited too long before taking sick dog to vet.

A YORK woman who found a severely emaciated dog in a field and took it home to care for it without taking it to a vet has been prosecuted.

Edith Smith, 25, came across starving greyhound near her home at Osbaldwick Travellers’ Site in March this year, and three weeks later took the dog – by this time so thin a vet thought it may need to be put down – to the RSPCA.

Now she has been convicted of causing unnecessary suffering by not getting professional help sooner.

Phil Brown, prosecutor for the RSPCA, said by the time the dog was seen by a vet it was very thin, and covered in sores and alopecia.

“It would have been obvious to any reasonable owner the dog needed care.

“This animal appeared not to have been kept in a suitable environment.”

Smith was convicted of horse welfare offences last November and banned from keeping horses for five years.

In defence, her solicitor, Andrew Craven, said Smith had done what she thought was best by taking the dog home to care for it, and by taking it to the site liaison officer three weeks later when it failed to put on weight.
Mr Craven said: “She accepts she had the dog for three weeks and should have taken it to a vet.

“She doesn’t enter a guilty plea on the bases she put the dog in that condition.

“She failed to take it to the vet immediately, and tried to do it herself.”

Smith has two other dogs, Mr Craven said, but magistrates ignored his pleas not to take the animals away.

Smith cried as the magistrates banned her for keeping dogs for five years, and also sentenced her to a 12-month community order, 100 hours of unpaid work, and ordered her to pay £100 in costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

She probably didn't want to take the dog to the RSPCA in case they murdered it, which they most likely did along with the two other dogs they took. Why did her silly solicitor not keep his mouth shut about the other two dogs FFS? Just say no, my client has no other animals. Unless, of course the informant spilled the beans? It looks to me as tho' they did not believe her story and thought the dog was hers all along and her story was to get herself off the hook? I wonder who gets the 'victim surcharge'...do they spend it on Winalot for the dog? And why were the costs only £100? RSPCA charges for three dogs must be much more than that. They keep them at the Dorchester I think.

My neighbour told me yesterday that about a month ago she 'sent £50 to the RSPCA'. I asked her what on earth possessed her and she said their adverts were so touching ... aaaaaaaaargh! However, since she sent it she has received piles and piles of begging letters from them wanting this, that and the other!!! They asked about the possibility of her leaving them her house...aren't they great!!