A WOMAN has been banned from keeping dogs for 10 years after three of more than 50 found in her Kidderminster home had to be put down.

Kidderminster magistrates told Susan Carter, 48, she had been very close to a jail sentence after admitting six charges of causing unnecessary suffering to dogs and one charge of transporting 26 dogs in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering.

Carter was being evicted from her home in Victoria Place in Kidderminster on August 3 last year when she loaded 26 terrier-cross dogs into a horsebox which was being towed by a white van pulled over by police.

The RSPCA were called in when dogs were found to be suffering from mange, blindness and collapsed eyes. Twenty-seven other dogs were found at the house, three of which were in such poor condition they had to be put down by vets.

But Jonathan Dollin, defending Carter, said: "There was no malicious intent towards the animals.

"Mrs Carter was under the misguided belief she could adequately care for all the animals' needs on her own. Maybe she was overconfident about her level of expertise."

Mr Dollin added Mrs Carter's two children had started with a dog each when they moved into the house in 1996 but the family had soon acquired more.

The dogs had bred among themselves and "mingled" with dogs from neighbouring homes, meaning they had spiralled in number to 53 by last summer.

Mr Dollin said Carter - "clearly a woman that likes animals" - had been worried about the court case for several months, and had to care full-time for her 26-year-old son, who has cerebral palsy.

Carter, who wept throughout the hearing, was banned from keeping dogs for 10 years and sentenced to 150 hours community service.