A dog breeder has been warned that he may still face jail, despite pleading guilty to a number of animal welfare offences, after a judge heard evidence how dogs and pups were kept in such appalling conditions that some had to be euthanised when they were removed from his care.
Vasyl Fedoryn, a 41-year-old Ukrainian national living at Ballypierce, Charleville, Co Cork, pleaded guilty on Monday at Mallow District Court to nine breaches of the Animal Health and Welfare Act, 2013, on April 21st, 2023, in relation to dogs he was breeding at his home.
ISPCA animal welfare inspector Caroline Faherty told Judge Colm Roberts that dogs she found in two sheds on Fedoryn’s property were in the worst conditions she had ever encountered. Animals were kept in the dark with no light and no bedding, and were forced to lie in their own faces.
Ms Faherty said she found a German Shepherd bitch and four pups with no water in one shed. When she filled a bowl with water, the adult dog was so dehydrated that she started gulping the water down so quickly that Ms Faherty had to remove the bowl in case she became ill.
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She found three German Shepherd pups and five collie pups in another shed with no light or no bedding. Their coats were matted from lying in their own excrement, while the lack of stimulation had resulted in the collies being so nervous that they tried to bite her, and were feral.
“It was absolutely horrific the state that I found the dogs in,” said Ms Faherty. She added that the three German Shepherd pups could not walk properly, and were instead walking on their back knees as they were malnourished and no muscle mass in their legs.
Ms Faherty became upset as she described the conditions. When Judge Roberts noted it must have been traumatic for her, she said it was the worst case she had ever investigated, and such was the stench of urine and faeces, she found herself retching and had to leave the shed.
She wrote up a seizure notice on the spot, and she and her colleagues in the ISPCA removed the dogs from both sheds. Three of the collie pups were so feral they could not be rehabilitated, and had to be euthanised. One of the German Shepherds also had to be put down.
What made the situation even more distressing was the fact there was plenty of bedding and food for the dogs on the property, but Fedoryn had given neither to the animals. “I asked him why he hadn’t and he said he was going to do this, that and the other for the dogs but he didn’t.”
Ms Faherty said the cost of rehabilitating the dogs was €16,450. When asked by Fedoryn’s solicitor Denis Linehan why kennelling costs accounted to €13,000 of this, she said the dogs had to be kennelled for up to a year in some cases to properly rehabilitate them for rehoming.
Judge Roberts said that it was a truly appalling case, and he convicted Fedoryn of the nine charges to which he entered pleas. On hearing that the defendant had no previous convictions, he said he would see a probation and welfare report before proceeding to sentencing.
The judge told Fedoryn that just because he was seeking a probation report, there was no guarantee he would not impose a prison sentence. “His liberty is at jeopardy given the seriousness of the offending,” he said, and adjourned the matter until April 1st for sentence.
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