A FORMER West Somerset visitor attraction owner who offered petting sessions with his pack of golden retrievers has been given an 18-week jail term, suspended for a year, and banned for 10 years from keeping dogs.

Nicolas Eugene Grant St James, who last year lost his Somerset Council licence to operate the Golden Retriever Experience (GRE), in Carhampton, was also ordered to carry out 200 hours’ community service, 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days, and pay £5,000 costs and a £150 victim surcharge.

The GRE’s 34 dogs were removed by RSPCA officers accompanied by police with a warrant following an investigation by the charity into standards of care for the animals.

Grant St James, aged 62, appeared for sentencing in North Somerset Magistrates Court on Tuesday (July 15) after pleading guilty to an animal welfare offence prosecuted by the RSPCA.

The court heard the golden retrievers were kept in unclean and overcrowded conditions, with little access to fresh water, and some of the dogs died.

Magistrates were told a visit to the site by the RSPCA and Somerset Council found conditions were ‘grossly overcrowded’ with 20 dogs living in a kitchen galley with a concrete floor and others cramped into a bedroom, leaving the animals fighting over limited resources.

During the RSPCA investigation, the body of a deceased dog was exhumed and showed it had suffered from injuries caused by fighting before his death.

Another dog had also died from his injuries after dog fights, while others were left with serious injuries, including a dog who had his genitals severed during a fight.

District Judge Angela Brereton said Grant St James showed ‘no remorse’ and was worried only about his financial losses.

Judge Brereton said his attitude ‘bordered on arrogance’.

St James was charged with failing to provide accommodation of a sufficient size for the number of dogs, failing to keep the accommodation clean, failing to provide a comfortable place for the dogs to rest, and failing to provide continuously available fresh, clean drinking water.

Evidence from a behaviourist described the welfare concerns: “The dogs were kept in crowded conditions within a dirty home when not at the ‘experience’.

“Bedding was not provided and drinking water was restricted to prevent indoor urination.

“The group included unspayed females and unneutered males living in close contact.”

RSPCA Inspector Jo Daniel said after the hearing: “These dogs were failed when it came to receiving the care they needed.

“Water, comfort, and a safe living environment are basic needs that every owner has a duty to fulfil to ensure the needs of their animals are being met.”

Earlier this year, the Free Press reported how the Golden Retriever Experience had been operating without planning permission since it opened more than five years ago.

Grant St James submitted a planning application only in April, a decision on which is still awaited from Somerset Council.

He has also appealed against the revocation of the attraction’s licence with a first tier tribunal hearing having been postponed several times pending the outcome of the RSPCA prosecution.