A DOG dealer who left nine puppies in a car in Weymouth while he took a ferry to deliver six other puppies to Jersey has been banned from keeping animals for ten years.

The inside of the vehicle was described as being ‘as hot as an oven’ when the young animals were pulled out close to death in May last year.

John Walsh (55), of Brampton in Cumbria, crammed the Jack Russells, Papillons and a Bichon Frise in the back of his green Vauxhall Astra with no water in temperatures of up to 28มC ( 82มF).

He was yesterday banned from keeping animals for a decade and was ordered to pay the RSPCA’s £32,000 legal costs.

Walsh was found guilty late last year of animal cruelty offences after a three-day Magistrates Court trial in Dorset.

He had denied charges of causing unnecessary suffering to nine puppies, abandoning the animals in a way likely to cause unnecessary suffering and transporting them in a way likely to cause unnecessary suffering.

Speaking after the hearing, Ken McKie, of the animal welfare charity WAG, said: ‘At last justice has been done.

We keep thinking of the suffering of animals caused by this man, who has now been convicted on three separate occasions of animal-related crimes.

While we were disappointed that Walsh was able to trade over the festive season – and we have received complaints about these activities – the money he has earned will now be put to good use.’