Owner of animal rescue where 41 dead dogs were found jailed for five years
Dogs were left to roam among the carcasses of dead animals at a rehoming centre where 41 dead dogs were found, a senior police officer said.
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Superintendent Leigh Norris, of Essex Police, said "we'll never truly know the extent" of what happened at Save A Paw in Crays Hill, Billericay.
It comes as Oaveed Rahman was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court for one count of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, against 21 dogs and a cat.
The 26-year-old, of Crays Hill, had also admitted to 11 counts of fraud by false representation.
Mr Norris said police, together with the RSPCA and Basildon Council, had raided a bungalow in Hope Road on May 13 2025 following reports about "dubious ongoings".
He said this included smells and the noise of dogs barking, and when the team arrived - including an RSPCA vet - they found "really quite awful conditions".
"Dogs being left to roam among the carcasses of deceased animals, deceased dogs," Mr Norris said.
"Really quite unhygienic and squalid conditions, faecal matter.
"Really quite awful conditions that they (officers) all were confronted with."
He said 37 dead dogs were found on the initial visit, and a further four dead dogs were found on a second visit in June 2025, when a shed was demolished.
"There were a number of outbuildings there and cages, from memory there were crates as well," Mr Norris said.
"Probably too many animals for the size of the plot itself but really quite cramped conditions."
He said that "remains were found within bins and just on the site itself".
Save A Paw was "one of a number of animal rehoming services, businesses within the UK", Mr Norris said.
He said it was a "service to effectively remove a dog from its owner where there might be issues around it growing out of the home or control issues, behaviour issues".
"Money was paid to the suspect, to Rahman, around that service and the charges that have been laid before him are where we've been able to prove or there've been admissions made around that not being the case," Mr Norris said.
"What he would have purported to them (pet owners) was going to happen, a dog be rehomed let's say, was proving not to be the case on some of those occasions."
Mr Norris said they tried to "cast the net far and wide" in their investigation and had more than 200 contacts through their Major Incident Public Portal.
"We've engaged with several police forces around the UK, we've spoken to people in over 20 counties in total, so a huge number of people very far and wide," he said.
"But will we ever truly know the extent of it, no I'm not sure we will."
Asked about the difference between the 41 dead dogs found at the property and the 21 dead dogs and a cat in the charges, Mr Norris said "we have to go where the evidence is".
"Yes there is disparity between what was found at the scene and what the charges culminated in but we present the evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service and then that determination is made on what those charges then look like," he said.
Mr Norris said that regulation around animal rehoming services was "not probably as tight as it could be".
"We'll never truly know the extent of how far maybe offending or this behaviour has gone," he said.
"It would be nice to try and help everyone that may have used that particular business for rehoming purposes but I just feel we're not going to be able to do that so I apologise for that...
"I'm just not sure we'll ever get to the bottom of truly how many animals have passed through that business."