The heartbreaking video captures the moment the RSPCA discovered 16-year-old collie mix Timmy in a house in Wallasey, Merseyside, which he had been forced to use as a toilet for 'several months'.
Timmy was found with no fresh food or water and looking 'defeated' in the living room of the house, which was strewn with piles of rubbish inspectors said were two foot high.
His former owner Christine Daley has pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a dog by failing to investigate and treat a lump on his face.
She also admitted and failing to meet the needs of a dog by failing to provide a suitable environment between 1 October and 25 October last year.
Daley, 60, was slapped with an eight week prison sentence suspended for six months, at Wirral Magistrates' Court yesterday and was also disqualified from keeping or owning any animal for 10 years and ordered to pay £1,075 in costs.
Anthony Joynes, who was the RSPCA investigator on the scene, said walking into the squalid house to a smell of ammonia so strong it 'burnt his eyelids' will stay with him forever.
Anthony said: 'The smell from the outside was bad enough and there were flies all over the house but then as we walked in the ammonia was so strong it burnt my eyelids.
'In my experience when you walk into homes where dogs have been kept in such horrific conditions, they are usually happy to see you or not happy to see you - you usually get all sorts of temperaments but Timmy just didn't react.
'He was just lying on the sofa looking so defeated, like he had completely given up. He was just this broken animal.
'The conditions he'd been left it were absolutely appalling. He was surrounded by feces and rotting food.
'It looks like he had been forced to use the house as a toilet for several months. There was no food or water and he had this horrific open and bleeding tumor on his face.
'You don't come across cases this bad very often. The smells and sights from inside that house will stick with me forever.
'It is just so heartbreaking, an old dog like Timmy should have been living out the last of his years on a nice sofa in front of a fire being cared for properly and loved.'
Timmy was discovered at the house on October 25 last year after Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service raised concerns while carrying out routine door-to-door fire safety checks.
The smell coming from the house was so bad that fire crews forced entry to the property and alerted the RSPCA when they found Timmy inside.
Since his rescue, Timmy has defied all the odds for a dog his age, making a full recovery from surgery on the tumor on his face.
The rescue dog is now living out his days on a farm with a family who 'adore' him.
Anthony said: 'It is such a relief that fire crews took action when they did. I can only assume from the smell and the flies, they thought there was a deceased person inside the house.
'If we had found Timmy just a week or two later, there is no telling what we would have been dealing with.
'For a dog of Timmy's age that had been given such an appalling level of care from his owner, his chances of survival were not looking good.
'If the cancerous tumor on his face had been attached to any bone or if the cancer had spread at all, the vets only option would have been euthanasia.
'But we went ahead with the surgery and Timmy has pulled through it all. He has fought to survive and jumped over ever hurdle put in front of him.
'I was worried that a dog of his age was going to struggle to find a new home but a family has taken him in and they absolutely adore him, he is such a loving dog.
'It makes me so happy to know that he is now living out his days on a beautiful farm in Cheshire getting the care he deserves.
'So many people overlook the older and middle-aged dogs at rescue centres but taking home an older dog can be the most rewarding thing.
'You might not get as many years with them but that short time means absolutely everything to that dog.'
(Daily Mail - March 9, 2017)
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