The York RSPCA branch has stepped in after 21 dogs and a cat were found living in heavily soiled crates piled high in the back of a caravan and van.
Police seized the animals from the vehicles in a car park in Walney Road, Barrow-in-Furness, last July after responding to emergency calls about the way they were being kept.
The 16 female and five male pedigree collies, and a black and white male cat, were taken to the local police station, and the RSPCA and a vet were contacted.
Ten of the dogs were emaciated which caused them to become anaemic. They were also stained in faeces and urine, and some had pressure sores on their bodies.
A vet said they had been suffering from hunger “for months”.
Their owner, Penelope Garner-Carpenter, 67, was disqualified from keeping animals for life by magistrates last month.
Garner-Carpenter, who had been convicted in her absence at an earlier hearing, was also handed a 22-week custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, for three animal welfare offences.
In his written evidence to the court, RSPCA Inspector Carl Larsson said: “The dogs were all housed in metal dog crates with plastic bases, although these were missing from some of them.
“There was no bedding of any sort and almost all the cages were heavily soiled.”
The animals were treated by a vet and then nursed back to health. The cat and all but one of the dogs, which was too ill to save, were rehomed by RSPCA centres, including York Animal Home on Landing Lane in Clifton.
Dogs including Madri, Malibu and Tequila were looked after at York before they found new homes.
Speaking after sentencing, RSPCA Inspector Will Lamping, who led the investigation, said: “Keeping so many dogs in crates in these conditions was totally unacceptable.
“There would have been barely room to move, distress from excessive noise and the animals would have been forced to toilet in the small space they had been provided with.
“Crates should only be used for short periods of time, with suitable training, and should never be used as a permanent environment for a dog.
“My thanks go to Cumbria Police, who answered the initial emergency call and assisted us with this case, as well as Animal Rescue Cumbria and the RSPCA’s network of branch-run centres who worked so hard to help the dogs and cat recover and go on to find loving new homes.”