Highland home had array of hungry, injured and filthy animals including boa constrictor and pygmy hedgehog found in ‘squalor’
A sheriff was appalled when he heard how a 35-year-old man lived in "squalor" alongside his four dogs, a snake, a pygmy hedgehog and a catfish.
Sheriff Gary Aitken heard how Scottish SPCA inspectors visited 35-year-old Scott Trist's rural property when he lived in Thain Road, Whitebridge, near Inverness on April 26 last year following a complaint by a member of the public.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that initially Trist wouldn't allow them access but when he agreed to let them in, they discovered "appalling living conditions" with dog faeces everywhere.
Fiscal depute Anna Boyle said that they discovered an underfed boa constrictor in a tank which still had dead chicks therein, and a fish tank which appeared empty.
When the inspectors asked about it, Trist said: "There's an expired fish.” The inspectors asked did he mean it was dead but when they looked, they found a catfish which was still alive.
The search revealed another tank with a pygmy hedgehog which also had no food and was suffering from an eye and a leg injury. There were also four dogs and the hounds were strewn with dog faeces.
Sheriff Aitken commented: "These are appalling conditions."
Trist's lawyer Duncan Henderson had to agree.
But he asked the sheriff to treat the case as "neglect and not active cruelty”, adding: “He is struggling with his mental health but the conditions should have been painfully obvious to him."
Mr Henderson confirmed that there were no other animals in the house but he drove his partner's three horses in a horsebox and asked that any ban on him would not apply to transporting them. He added that there were no concerns about the horses' welfare.
Trist, who now lives in Farr, also near Inverness, admitted three charges under the Animal Welfare Act. One was causing the hedgehog unnecessary suffering by failing to obtain veterinary treatment for its injuries. The second specified the hedgehog, snake and catfish which were not afforded a suitable environment and diet. The third offence related to his four dogs which were not being kept in a suitable environment, and failed to protect them from suffering, injury, disease by keeping them in squalid and unhygienic conditions littered with faeces.
Sheriff Aitken ordered Trist to carry out 210 hours of unpaid community work and gave him a stern warning that jail would follow if he did not comply.
"It is almost inconceivable that anyone could live in conditions like this let alone keep entirely dependant animals in these conditions and not realise anything was grossly wrong,” he said.
"You are very close to a prison sentence where you would be kept in a cage - except you would be fed and it kept clean. If you were confined, then you would be kept in significantly better conditions than your animals."
The sheriff also banned Trist from keeping, caring or owning any animal for the next four years with the exception of transporting the horses.
