West Country woman filmed beating dog as she nursed her puppies

A dog breeder from the West Country has been punished after being caught on camera kicking and punching a dog who was nursing newborn puppies at the time of the attack. Sharon Jeannine Gladwell, of Mount Pleasant, Hayle, was reported to the RSPCA by a horrified member of the public after she witnessed the attack on the animal that had been left in Gladwell's care.

Gladwell, 51, appeared at Bodmin Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, June 18, to be sentenced after pleading guilty to two offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. She was fined £733, ordered to pay £400 in costs and a £293 victim surcharge for maltreating the dog, named Trust.

The witness statement reads: “I saw Sharon enter the room where Trust was with the puppies. She placed a bowl in the whelping box and I saw Trust cower away. This wasn’t at all like her and it concerned me.

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“At 17.58... I saw her get into the whelping box with Trust and the puppies. I was watching it live as it happened. Sharon straightened out the bedding and then kicked Trust hard in the chest with her right foot. She then leant over her and Trust didn’t move.

“She then hits Trust to the face causing her head to move backwards. She then continues to lean over her before hitting her again to the face. She then picks her up by the scruff and the fur on her rump, and holds her off the floor for around eight seconds before throwing her to the back of the whelping pen.”

A vet who viewed the footage said Trust would have suffered physical pain as a result of the incident, as well as ‘emotional stress’. In a statement to the court, the vet added: “It is my opinion that the person in this video has behaved appallingly with a total disregard for the welfare of both the bitch and her pups.”

The dog was purchased as a puppy from Gladwell in 2018 under an agreement that, when she was three, she would be returned to the breeder in Penwith to have a litter of puppies. In May 2021, the RSPCA said Trust was put to stud and her owner returned her to Gladwell's home to give birth in July, alongside another pregnant dog.

Gladwell was caught on camera because she asked the witness to help fix the cameras in her two whelping rooms, a pen designed to protect puppies during birth. She said in her statement that she did manage to fix them and downloaded an app on her phone to see them as well, which, she added, Gladwell was aware of.

The witness said, in her statement: “She [Gladwell] had two whelping rooms set up, one in the front bedroom which was where Trust was, and one in a room off the toilet. She told me that the cameras in her whelping rooms had stopped working and asked me to try to fix them for her.

"I ended up getting them to work and downloaded an app onto my phone so I could see them as well. Sharon knew this. I stayed whilst Trust had her puppies. She had eight puppies in total.”

The witness left after an argument between the two women but, when Gladwell stopped returning her messages, she decided the following day, July 31, 2021, to check in on her and the puppies, through the app, saw Gladwell's treatment of the dog and reported her to the RSPCA.

One of Trust's puppies died from suspected leptospirosis - a bacterial disease spread by the urine of infected animals - but the others were all sold and their mother was returned to her owner. The witness added: “Sharon told me that Trust had been kept inside the house but she stank and her stomach was covered in dirt which took me about a week to get off. She had also lost weight.”

Reports were made to the RSPCA in July 2023 and officers launched an investigation, visiting Gladwell in November of that year. The witness said she didn’t report it earlier because she was worried about repercussions.