Dublin District Court<\/a> to six counts of neglect and another six for causing unnecessary suffering to the dogs. The offences happened after he had been previously banned from owning animals.<\/p>\nJudge Anthony Halpin said it was a serious offence and the dogs were in a \u201ctotally unfit\u201d environment, but he accepted Costello did not intend to hurt them.<\/p>\n
The court heard he buried his \u201chead in the sand\u201d when faced with other issues, and the judge held that those other factors \u201cgave rise to his complete indifference to the health and safety of the animals\u201d. <\/p>\n
He held that the court\u2019s sanction must reflect that.<\/p>\n
Prosecution solicitor Michael P Quinlan outlined the facts, telling the court that the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) notified the council about a complaint of an alleged puppy farm at Costello\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Dog wardens, assisted by the DSPCA and garda\u00ed, entered the property on November 8th, 2024, and found six dogs in various states of neglect or in cruel and neglectful conditions.<\/p>\n
There was an \u201coverwhelming\u201d smell of faeces and urine in the house and in the garden and dog run outside. The dogs had no access to water or food and were in crates stacked on top of each other, the court heard.<\/p>\n
They were seized and examined by vets who compiled assessment reports.<\/p>\n
The first was a Wheaten Terrier with a grossly matted coat, underweight, with a body score of three out of nine, five being the normal condition. A second Wheaten Terrier was in the same conditions.<\/p>\n
There was an eight-month-old bitch, and the court heard \u201cit was almost blind with cataracts\u201d. The fourth dog, a six-month-old puppy, was underweight with muscle atrophy and a shoulder scar. Dog five was a female underweight; the sixth was aged six months, worm-infested and very thin.<\/p>\n
Photos were handed into court, which heard that Costello had prior convictions under the Animal Health and Welfare Act in November 2022 and that he received a jail sentence.<\/p>\n
However, the part-time metal fabricator has not come to the council\u2019s attention since the house was searched last year.<\/p>\n
Bakshi Mohit BL pleaded for leniency and furnished the court with photos of the property, telling the judge that there had been a drainage problem at the rented property, a Peter McVerry house.<\/p>\n
Costello instructed his barrister that wastewater had been rising from the ground, and the accused contended that this explained the smell of faeces and urine.<\/p>\n
From an early age he had cared for or adopted dogs and kept them to a high standard, winning medals and awards, Judge Halpin was informed in mitigation.<\/p>\n
However, Costello had been involved in other legal proceedings at the time and buried his head in the sand due to a combination of factors he was unable to handle. Counsel said his client knows he should have found someone to care for the dogs while he dealt with the drainage and other issues.<\/p>\n
The defence pleaded with the court not to jail the accused, who cared for his elderly father, and the barrister stressed that Costello had not kept any dog since.<\/p>\n
The judge accepted Mr Mohit\u2019s submission that the guilty plea was valuable, as it avoided the prosecution having to call five witnesses and a lengthy hearing.<\/p>\n
The council incurred bills amounting to \u20ac14,644 for animal care, plus another \u20ac1,850 in legal costs, but the judge held that there was no prospect of Costello discharging those expenses.<\/p>\n
Mr Quinlan said Costello had been given a 10-year animal ban for his prior conviction, and the judge agreed to the solicitor\u2019s request to now impose a lifetime ban, with the possibility of review at a later stage in the event he wished to keep dogs in the future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An award-winning dog owner was handed a lifetime animal ban on Tuesday for keeping puppies stacked in crates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8411,61,60,43,30951],"class_list":{"0":"post-121744","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-dublin-district-court","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-swords"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}