Farmer is jailed after UK’s biggest ever animal rescue

A FARMER who kept more than 200 animals in vile conditions, sparking the ‘UK’s biggest rescue mission’, has been jailed.

Geoffrey Bennett kept starving ponies riddled with worms in a field and tethered dozens of dogs, many heavily pregnant, in a filthy yard and tiny cramped cages.

Goats, alpacas and donkeys standing in deep faeces were also found squashed together in a barn.

Fourteen horses, two dogs, two ponies, a goat, a chicken and a duck were so sick they had to be euthanised, the RSPCA said. Many of the other animals found when police raided Hurst Farm, in Ripley, Surrey, in January 2019, were skinny and suffering from underlying health conditions.

Bennett, 68, was jailed for 19 weeks and banned from keeping animals for life after admitting a string of cruelty charges.

Recorder Darren Reed also ordered him to complete a 12-month supervision order on release from prison.

‘The prison service will show you responsibility and care many times greater than you showed the animals,’ he added. In total, 204 animals found at the farm were taken into care, Guildford crown court heard.

Speaking after the case, PC Hollie Iribar, of Surrey Police, said: ‘This was the most difficult case I’ve seen. I’m glad the animals were given a second chance at a happy and healthy life.’

Kirsty Withnall, of the RSPCA’s special operations unit, said it took 100 staff from various agencies ‘12 hours to assess all of the animals and move them off site... making it one of the biggest coordinated rescue missions the UK has ever seen’.

Given second chance: Some 204 animals were taken into care, and after the raid 20 foals, six goat kids, an alpaca and nine puppies were born at rescue units

RSPCA/SWNS ‘Worst case’: 100 staff from various agencies spent 12 hours assessing and rescuing the animals

Vile: Dozens of dogs, many of them pregnant, were found chained and tethered in faeces-filled cages