A MAN has been fined after he was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a rottweiler dog.

Ian Hodgson, of Shaw Street, Bishop Auckland, pleaded not guilty to the charge when he appeared before Bishop Auckland magistrates yesterday.

The court heard how Hodgson was asked by the dog's owner to feed it "from time to time" where it was kept in a car breaker's yard in Gurney Valley, near Bishop Auckland, in August 2001.

But police were called in to help RSPCA inspector Gavin Butterfield remove the dog from the yard after it appeared grossly underweight.

Bishop Auckland vet Paul Wilson said in a statement that the animal was the thinnest rottweiler and worst case of starvation in that kind of dog he had seen.

Kevin Campbell, on behalf of the RSPCA, said: "The dog weighed 15.95kg and its minimum weight should have been 30kg.''

John Turner, for Hodgson, said that the 26-year-old did not feel the dog was his responsibility because it did not belong to him.

Hodgson admitted feeding the dog every couple of days after being asked by its owner, Alan Hamilton, if he would feed it from time to time. Later Mr Hamilton was admitted to hospital.

But he said that Mr Hamilton's son changed the lock on the gate to the yard in December 2001 and that he no longer had a key.

He was fined £150 with £100 costs.