A man has been jailed for brutally cutting off a puppy's tail.

RSCPA inspectors who found the cowering eight-week-old Jask Russell said he would have been in “excruciating pain” when his cruel owner Walter Doe cut through his tail with a knife or scissors.

Doe, 24, of Campbell Close, Uckfield, claimed he did not realise the puppy - called Jack - would suffer, but magistrates found him guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to the puppy and failing to seek veterinary treatment for his open wound.

He was jailed for 12 weeks and banned from keeping animals for ten years when he appeared Hastings Magistrates' Court.

It was also ordered that Jack would be permanently taken away from Doe.

A concerned member of the public called the RSPCA after seeing poor Jack suffering.

When inspector Andrew Kirby visited Doe's home he found the subdued puppy with a bandage wrapped around the remaining two-inches of his tail.

A vet found that the raw wound must have been caused by a sharp tool like a knife or scissors, but the implement was never found.

Jack then had to have an operation to remove the remaining stump of his tail.

Mr Kirby, who gave evidence in court on Monday, was so touched by Jack's plight he decided to give him a safe new home.

He said: “We have no proof about what was used to dock Jack's tail, but whether it was a knife or a pair of scissors, he would have been in agony.

“Cutting through the bone of the tail must have been excruciatingly painful and no attempt at all was made to relieve this pain.

“Jack was very quiet and subdued when I found him which is hardly surprising if you think about what he had gone through.

“But he soon came out of his shell and is such a lovely little dog despite everything - and I really took his case to heart, so much so that I have decided to adopt him myself.

“I just want to give him a happy forever home so he can forget his tough start in life.

“Tail docking is such a brutal way to treat a young animal in any case. As well as the pain is causes, it is just completely unnecessary and deprives the animal of their best means of expression and balance. We urge people to remember that is it is against the law for a reason.

“The prison sentence reflects how seriously the court took the suffering caused to the puppy.”

A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said that they continue to see a worrying number of cases of dogs like Jack being brutalised for cosmetic reasons.

Anyone with any information about a case of animal cruelty should call the RSPCA in confidence on 0300 1234 999.