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Man jailed for turning house into 'zoo'
A man has been jailed after he turned his house into an illegal pet shop crammed with more than 1,000 animals.
John Ord Clark, 42, was jailed for three months by magistrates after he turned his house into an illegal pet shop crammed with more than 1,000 animals Photo: GETTY
Welfare officers found the bedrooms stacked floor to ceiling with tanks of lizards, frogs and other reptiles. There were four boa constrictors, seven geckos, dogs, parrots, chickens, tortoises, a water dragon and a rat in a small plastic box.
John Ord Clark, 42, was jailed for three months by magistrates in Oldham, Greater Manchester. He had denied four counts of causing unnecessary suffering to animals, nine of properly looking after animals, and one of keeping an unlicensed pet shop.
Magistrates found him guilty of all 14 charges. Clark was sentenced to three months in prison and banned from keeping any animals for five years. RSPCA officers raided the house on 21 July last year and again nine days later. Inspector Catherine Burns told the court:
"It was impossible to count all the animals but I would estimate there were more than 1,000. The dogs were living in appalling conditions. Their pen was cramped and full of faeces which was splashing on to their coats. "There were no dry areas for the dogs and their water was filthy.
"Fungus was growing in a tank which housed one of the snakes and the rat was living in a small plastic box which meant it was sitting in its own urine and faeces." Clark was convicted in 2003 of keeping two Caiman crocodiles without a licence and causing unnecessary suffering to a tortoise.
