Trainer Andrew Claridge-Fleming insisted the dog’s deaths were not his fault and someone else shut the door to his car with the dogs inside
A Crufts dog trainer who allowed three pets to bake to death in a hot car has been spared jail.
Andrew Claridge-Fleming, 57, left the four gundogs in crates in the back of his Land Rover Discovery for six hours on a hot summer’s day. He was unexpectedly called away to drive his wife to a relative’s house and by the time he returned three of the four dogs had perished in the 23C heat.
Two of them, Milo, a six-month-old fox red Labrador, and a cocker spaniel called Bodger, belonged to clients. Claridge-Fleming tried to cool down the fourth dog, his own cocker spaniel Rocky, before rushing him to the vet.
He said he had left water and a door and the boot open to keep the dogs cool at his farm in New Milton, Hants, on August 3, 2023. But he returned to find someone had shut the doors while he was gone.
Claridge-Fleming runs training school Gordleton Gundogs and made his debut at Crufts last year with a canine called Ato. He was featured in an issue of Gundog Journal the year before this incident and has represented England at the international game fair working test.
His wife Nicola breeds working cocker spaniels under the same name. Bournemouth Crown Court heard Claridge-Fleming had taken the four dogs out for training in the morning and returned home at about 9am.
He left them an hour later and did not return until 4pm. The three dogs, which also included Claridge-Fleming’s other pet, a cockapoo, died from heatstroke and hypothermia.
He pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to animals on a basis of plea, denying he was directly responsible for the deaths. Silas Lee, prosecuting, read the basis which said: “I had taken the dogs out for training that morning and returned at approximately 9am.
“They were left in a crate in the back of the car with capacity for four dogs, two in each compartment. They were left with water and I left the back door and boot open on my Land Rover Discovery.
“My wife and I had four children, my wife had just given birth. She had gone out to visit her aunt but came back a short while later saying she couldn’t cope with the drive with all the children.
“I said I would take them, this was around 10am. It was otherwise unplanned. I was gone until approximately 4pm. When I returned I was shocked to find the boot had been closed. Three out of four had perished. I was distraught. I did what I could to cool Rocky down before taking him to the vet.
“I do not accept I am directly responsible for their deaths but I do accept I left the dogs unattended for too long.”
Rachael Helier, the owner of Milo, said she felt anger towards Claridge-Fleming. Milo was doing a one month training course and his death had left Ms Helier’s young children ‘distraught’.
The court heard the trainer first claimed to Ms Helier he had only been left unattended for an hour. He later said it had been ‘a few hours’ before finally acknowledging his six hour absence.
Ms Helier’s victim statement, read out in court, said: “Finding out our puppy had died was just awful but knowing he died from being shut in a hot car in avoidable circumstances just made it worse.
“Telling our two girls, aged seven and nine, Milo had died and hearing them whaling and physically upset was horrible.
“We understand accidents happen but had Andrew Claridge-Fleming been apologetic or remorseful at the start of the process we would likely have forgiven him. But him lying and being defensive, making us feel like we were being difficult, has made our anger towards him more pronounced.
“We miss Milo every day and the girls will never get over losing him so soon – he has left a big hole in our family.”
The other dogs which perished were a cocker spaniel named Bodger and a cockapoo named Rocky. mBodger’s owner was also a client who did not support the prosecution.
The fourth dog, also named Rocky, was taken to the vet with hyperthermia. The court heard the evidence of veterinary surgeon Naomi Williams that the dogs would have suffered from heatstroke and hypothermia from not being able to regulate their body temperatures.
Holly Hagan, defending, said Claridge-Fleming has five children, including a step-child, who would ‘suffer terribly’ if he received a custodial sentence.
She added: “He is genuinely devastated by the fact this happened. Dogs are not only pets to him but his livelihood and passion.”
She told the court that the defendant continues to run his dog training business but no longer advertises and relies on people ‘that know him and trust him’.
Her Honour Judge Suzanne Evans KC handed Claridge-Fleming a 27 month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
She told him: “Your shocking lack of care for these dogs and negligence of them is what led to their deaths.
“On August 3, 2023, the temperature was in the region of 22-23C and everybody, even people who are not experts, knows that in the middle of hot weather dogs are highly vulnerable in hot vehicles and should never be left there.
“It may be practiced in the gundog industry (that dogs are left in these conditions) but for an outsider it seems entirely wrong.
“They were left to suffer in the back of the car for six hours while you were distracted by a family emergency.
“Dogs are loving, trusting creatures who rely upon those who care for them and you failed the dogs entirely.”
Claridge-Fleming was also ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work and pay a victim surcharge and undisclosed costs.
Speaking after the sentencing, RSPCA Inspector Patrick Bailey, who investigated for the animal welfare charity, said: “Many people think something like this will never happen to them so we hope this saddening case reminds people that the risk to the lives of animals is so high.
“We’d plead with people to never leave a dog in a vehicle even for a moment, especially during hot weather.”