A West Country woman has filmed herself beating a dog while nursing her puppies

A West Country dog ​​breeder has been punished after he was caught on camera kicking and punching a dog who was nursing newborn puppies at the time of the attack. Sharon Jeannine Gladwell, of Mount Pleasant, Hayle, was reported to the RSPCA by a horrified member of the public after witnessing the attack on the animal which had been left in Gladwell’s care.

Gladwell, 51, appeared at Bodmin Crown Court on Tuesday (June 18) to be sentenced after pleading guilty to two offenses under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. She was fined £733, ordered to pay £400 court costs and a £293 victim surcharge. dog abuse surcharge, called Trust.

The witness statement said: “I saw Sharon enter the room where Trust was with the puppies. She put a bowl in the fetal box and I watched Trust walk away. This was nothing like her and I was concerned.

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“At 5.58pm… I saw her go into the litter box with Trust and the puppies. I watched it live as it happened. Sharon straightened the bed and then kicked Trust in the chest with her right foot. Then he leaned over her and Trust didn’t move.

“He then hits Trust in the face, causing his head to snap back. He then continued to lean over her before punching her in the face again. She then picks it up by the shell and fur on the rump and holds it to the floor for about eight seconds before throwing it behind the farrowing pen.”

A vet who watched the footage said Trust was said to have suffered physical pain as a result of the incident, as well as “emotional stress”. In a statement to the court, the vet added: “It is my opinion that the person in this video has behaved appallingly with complete disregard for the welfare of the puppy and her puppies.”

The dog was bought as a puppy from Gladwell in 2018 under an agreement that when she was three years old she would be returned to the breeder in Penwith to have a litter of puppies. In May 2021, the RSPCA said the Trust had been steeled and her owner returned her to Gladwell’s home to give birth in July, along with another pregnant dog.

Gladwell was caught on camera as she asked the witness to help fix the cameras in her two birth chambers, a cage designed to protect puppies during birth. She said in her statement that she was able to fix them and downloaded an app on her phone to view them as well, which, she added, Gladwell knew about.

The witness said in her statement: “She (Gladwell) had two birthing rooms set up, one in the front bedroom where the Trust was and one in a room next to the toilet. She told me that the cameras in her birthing rooms had stopped working and asked me to try to fix them for her.

“I ended up getting them to work and downloaded an app on my phone so I could see them myself. Sharon knew that. I stayed while Trust had her puppies. She had eight puppies in total.”

The witness left after an argument between the two women, but when Gladwell stopped returning her messages, she decided the next day, July 31, 2021, to check on her and the puppies through the app, she saw Gladwell treated the dog and reported it to the RSPCA.

One of the Trust’s puppies died from suspected leptospirosis – a bacterial disease spread through the urine of infected animals – but the others were all sold and their mother returned to her owner. The witness added: “Sharon told me that Trust was kept in the house but she had been smelling and her stomach was covered in dirt which took me about a week to get rid of. And she had lost weight.”

Reports were made to the RSPCA in July 2023 and officers launched an investigation, visiting Gladwell in November that year. The witness said she didn’t report sooner because she was worried about repercussions.