A MOTHER and daughter can continue to keep dogs despite admitting responsibility for a starved and grossly underweight Labrador, York magistrates decided.

Andrew Davidson, prosecuting, told them Bailey, a Labrador, was so thin, all his bones were visible through his skin and he weighed almost half of what he should have done.

He belonged to Anna Marie Sykes, of Crabtree Drive, Malton, but was living at her 24-year-old daughter Carlie Marie Sykes’s home in Dairy Way, Malton.

For the daughter, James Fox-McGowan said she had another dog who was healthy and properly cared for.

Both women pleaded guilty to causing Bailey unnecessary suffering and failure to investigate the cause of his poor body condition.

The RSPCA, which prosecuted the pair, asked magistrates to ban them from caring for dogs, but magistrates declined.

They said because the daughter’s other dog was healthy, she clearly could care for dogs properly and the mother had not had day-to-day care of Bailey. The mother was now renting a property where dogs were not permitted.

Each woman was fined £200 and ordered to pay £150 prosecution costs and a £30 statutory surcharge.

Mr Davidson said Bailey was 10 or 11 years old. Ryedale District Council called in the animal charity when he was found apparently abandoned outside the mother’s house.

“It was immediately apparent to everyone who subsequently had dealings with Bailey, that he was significantly underweight and was described as ‘emaciated’,” said Mr Davidson.

The dog wolfed down any food put in front of him and after a fortnight on a normal diet, his weight had increased by a third.

Mr Fox-McGowan said the daughter had taken in Bailey as a favour for her mother when she had lost her original accommodation. She hadn’t realised how thin the dog was becoming. Bailey had rejected the food put in front of him.

For the mother, Cheryl Rudden said she knew her daughter could look after dogs properly.

She had thought the dog’s thin condition was due to him pining for her.