A WESTON mother has been banned from keeping animals after starving dogs over a two-month period, but has avoided going to prison.

Tanya Chidgey was sentenced at North Somerset Courthouse after admitting one count of causing unnecessary suffering to two dogs and another of failing to protect their welfare.

The 35-year-old, who cried during her hearing, admitted she did not regularly feed the animals and sometimes only gave them her leftovers, including food from KFC on one occasion.

The malnourishment occurred between late-June and early September last year when RSPCA inspectors saw the two Staffordshire bull terriers, called Asbo and Fizz, were ‘incredibly thin’.

David Bird, mitigating, said Chidgey fell into a downward spiral after her long-term partner left her in 2012 and three of her four children left with him. He also criticised social and health services for not doing more to support her when she needed counselling.

He said: “The dogs weren’t young animals. They had been properly cared for up until these events when her life hit the buffers and the dogs became forgotten about.

“She accepts that and accepts responsibility. She’s generally a law-abiding citizen.”

Mr Bird said Chidgey had previously incurred a fine for not paying her TV licence, an offence he said was ‘archetypal of someone in poverty’.

Chidgey, of Brue Close, accepted the disqualification order stopping her from looking after pets in the future.

She was also handed a three-month curfew and ordered to pay £500 costs and £60 victim surcharge.