A British family went through a nightmare experience when they discovered that a pet sitter they hired to watch their dog whilst they were aware had been choking, hitting, and kicking their beloved pet.
Going away on holiday and being forced to leave your beloved pets behind can already be a hard thing for some people.
A man has spoken out, however, about the horrifying discovery that the woman he paid to look after his two dogs began hitting them the first day he was away.
Duncan Horlor, from Solihull, appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss his ongoing work advocating for better regulation in the animal care industry.
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Duncan and his family went on holiday in 2024 and hired Paige Williams, 26, to look after their three dogs, two cats and two birds of prey.
The owner said that they had hired her several times before without issue over the course of 18 months.
He told the ITV morning show that she had ‘qualifications in animal care’, stating that she came with a recommendation from a family friend.
When he looked at the footage of what he saw however he was shocked.
Williams, and her partner Bradley Archer, 26, were caught on camera abusing the family’s two dogs, a 13-month-old called Ayrton and three-year-old Frieda.
The duo shouted and swore at the dogs, roughly dragged them by their collars, held them to the ground, and also whipped and kicked the animals.
An RSPCA Inspector, Ben Jones, stated that Ayrton was on the receiving end of the worst abuse.
He said: “He was locked in a crate which left him crying and whining, he was tethered to a tree - with water left just out of his reach - and he was chased around the garden and threatened with a stick.
"He was handled very inappropriately, with a slip lead used to yank him around and even flip him up into the air.
"When he jumped up at Archer he was whipped at several times with the same lead."
Speaking on the ITV show alongside Ayrton, Duncan said: “Because we’d used them previously there was no warning or want for any worry.
“We’ve had what was an amazing holiday, teaching the kids how to travel, how to backpack, about different cultures, and to know that from the very first day we were away enjoying ourselves our animals were suffering.”
He stated that he had appeared on the show to try draw attention to the fact there is ‘zero regulation’ on pet carers.
He continued: “Everyone gets frustrated, life isn’t always easy, but to start abusing animals in your care on the very first day of four weeks, that’s not something that’s built up, that’s not a frustration… that was really, really hard.”
Williams was sentenced to a 12-month community order and was banned from keeping animals for seven years, along with 140 hours of unpaid work.
Archer received the same seven-year ban from keeping animals and a 12-month community order with 40 hours of unpaid work.
Posting on X after their sentencing Duncan said: “Having to wait 20 months until we could finally tell people what these horrible people did to our animals has not been easy. It was a relief to finally get some justice last week in court. The only punishment we were interested in was the ban, to ensure that they couldn’t hurt any other animals.”
Topics: Good Morning Britain, RSPCA, TV and Film, TV, ITV
Michael Slavin