Derbyshire trainer sentenced after dog suffers fatal injury in his care
Daniel Fullwood denied inflicting blunt force trauma on the 18-month-old pet
A dog trainer will still be allowed to keep animals despite being found guilty of inflicting a fatal injury on a dog that resulted in death.
Freya, an 18-month-old Tamaskan wolfdog, was in the care of Daniel Fullwood, from Chesterfield, while her owners went away on holiday. Fullwood boarded the beloved pet into his kennels while Freya's owners were away in December 2023.
Yet just days into the couple's holiday, they were informed their "much-loved" pet had suddenly died.
Fullwood, 29, denied causing injury to the young pup but Derby Crown Court convicted him of the offence in February following an investigation and prosecution by the RSPCA, reports Derbyshire Live.
At a sentencing hearing on April 10, Fullwood was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid work, but the judge did not issue him a disqualification order that would prevent him from keeping animals. Derby Crown Court heard that Freya’s owners needed help with lead walking and had taken her to the kennels he runs on December 1, 2023, for boarding and training while they went on holiday.
On December 6, whilst they were still abroad, they received a call from the kennels informing them Freya had become lethargic and been taken to a local vet where staff had tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate her for 20 minutes before she passed away. After the owners requested a post-mortem, results from it showed Freya had suffered multiple lacerations to her liver which had been caused by blunt force trauma.
No other injuries were identified and the report said it was considered they were the result of a single traumatic impact to the dog’s abdomen. The findings led the owners to contact the RSPCA, who started an investigation.
At his trial, Fullwood, who had pleaded not guilty, said another member of staff was the first person to see Freya between 8am and 8.10am on December 6. He then started the first training session with her between about 9.20am and 9.30am on the concrete yard with three other members of staff present.
To begin with, Fullwood said she was “"excitable" but after five minutes her demeanour changed and it very quickly became apparent that something wasn’t right. Freya lay down when asked to sit, and when subsequently asked to walk, she appeared very tired, the court heard.
At around 9.35am to 9.40am, Fullwood said he took Freya back to her kennel, where she lay down again. An emergency appointment was arranged with a vet, but by 9.40am to 9.50am she had fully collapsed.
He said he carried her to a car, arriving at the vets at 9.55am, but despite efforts to resuscitate her she could not be saved. He told the court he couldn’t explain how Freya, who weighed 24kg (52.91 pounds), had sustained the injury to her liver, describing her as "ridiculously excited" while in her kennel and bouncing from wall to wall.
A member of kennel staff, who also gave evidence, said Freya was fine when they attended to her first thing that morning. They added they had then observed Fullwood training her, the pair were walking in large circles and all appeared to be well.
The staff member was then told Fullwood had needed to rush Freya to the vets and was later informed she had died.
A vet who reviewed the post mortem report and gave evidence at the trial for the RSPCA, said: "Freya was behaving excitedly at the beginning of her training session with Daniel Fullwood but after five minutes her demeanour changed and she began to appear very lethargic, began dragging her feet and wanted to lie down. These clinical signs would have all been associated with her falling blood pressure and the pain associated with the abdominal trauma.
"These signs indicate that Freya had sustained the injury to her liver at this time. Therefore, the liver injury had occurred at the beginning of the training session, after Freya had been removed from her kennel and before she began showing signs of lethargy five minutes later in response to her rapid blood loss and abdominal pain.
"These clinical signs would have all been associated with her falling blood pressure and the pain associated with the abdominal trauma. These signs indicate that Freya had sustained the injury to her liver at this time.
"Therefore, the liver injury had occurred at the beginning of the training session, after Freya had been removed from her kennel and before she began showing signs of lethargy five minutes later in response to her rapid blood loss and abdominal pain."
In mitigation, the court was told that what had happened to Freya was an "isolated incident" reflective of a loss of judgement which had already had a significant impact on Fullwood, who had lost his job as a result.
During sentencing, Judge Martin Hurst said significant force had been used, either in a commercial context or aggravated by professional responsibility, and there was no dispute it led to Freya’s death.
The judge added that the incident had been "completely out of character" and that disqualifying Fullwood from keeping dogs would be disproportionate to him and his family. He also concluded there was no relevant CCTV footage and the incident had not been observed by anybody else.
Judge Martin Hurst also added that the defendant had homed a very large number of dogs, two in particular could only be exercised or taken to the vet if Fullwood was with them, and they faced being put to sleep if he was banned.
Speaking after sentencing, Inspector Bird said: "It was an extremely upsetting case as Freya was so young and her owners were devastated by what happened to their much-loved dog."