THE animal lover who stormed the RSPCA's York headquarters with a sawn-off air rifle and a samurai sword has been banned from keeping dogs for 12 months.

Phil Brown, prosecuting for the RSPCA, told York magistrates that on March 27 Paul Lovie had been discussing symptoms of illness in his Jack Russell terrier, Rosie, with a locum vet, John Watson.

He was told a home visit would cost £200, which he could not afford because he was unemployed.

During the phone conversation, Lovie said he would take a pickaxe to Rosie to end her sufferings.

That prompted the vet to call in the authorities, and on March 29 an RSPCA inspector took Rosie from Lovie's home in Rose Street, off Haxby Road, because she was in pain.

The court heard that Rosie died later in RSPCA care, though not through lack of treatment by the charity, and post-mortem tests could not find the cause of her death.

Lovie pleaded guilty to animal neglect by not getting treatment over a four-day period and was given a 12-month conditional discharge and a 12-month ban from keeping dogs.

He is serving a 15-month jail sentence for offences committed when he went to the RSPCA's Landing Lane base on March 29 to get his dog back.

His solicitor, Craig Sutcliffe, said he would be released on January 9. Rosie was well cared for, but a combination of factors led to Lovie making the "desperate, upset" call to the locum. He had not injured her.

In an exclusive interview with the Evening Press earlier this year, Lovie revealed how he "snapped" before storming the RSPCA sanctuary.

The former York Arms bar worker said he hoped to "bluff" staff into returning the animal, but ended up at the centre of a terrifying stand-off with armed police.

During the siege he set off a fire extinguisher and told the police he had accelerants. They feared he would set fire to the building.

He had remarried his ex-wife Judith just two weeks before the incident, but admitted that he had been drinking heavily and was depressed.

Updated: 10:27 Friday, September 10, 2004