Pets lived in squalor at a home piled deep with rubbish, rotting food and animal faeces, a court heard.

Four dogs, four cats, a kitten and a parrot were discovered living in disgusting conditions at the home of Sheila Hocking when the RSPCA and police executed a search warrant issued by magistrates.

Mrs Hocking, 64, her daughter Rosetta Hocking, 25, and son Richard Hocking, 28, appeared at Worthing Magistrates' Court yesterday for the first day of their trial.

All three deny the 29 charges of animal cruelty brought against each of them by the RSPCA.

The charges - which are the same for each defendant, all of New Road, Shoreham - date from between July 1 and August 1 last year.

They include causing unnecessary suffering to a spaniel, two Jack Russell terrier puppies, an Amazonian parrot, a collie dog, four cats and a kitten and keeping the animals in an unsuitable environment.

The three are also charged with not ensuring the animals were protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease.

Seven other charges relate to three horses and two ponies kept by the Hockings at stables at Blackstone Lane, Henfield.

Anthony Pritchard, an RSPCA inspector, told the court he had visited the Hockings's home several times from 2005 to 2007 when he had found various animals to be in generally good condition.

He visited the property again on July 31, 2007, with two RSPCA colleagues, a vet and two uniformed police officers after a neighbour had taken two kittens to a veterinary surgery.

Mr Pritchard said after nobody answered the door when they knocked, he went inside with police who had been granted a search warrant.

He said: "You had to climb over piles of rubbish and animal excrement in the house just to get from one room to another.

"The animals had free run of the house. There was a smell from the animal faeces and it also smelled of rotten food."

He said: "I was surprised when I entered the property at the amount of household rubbish piled up inside. The dogs were running around on the rubbish.

"Inside the living room there was a bird cage half submerged in rubbish. There was food in the cage, but I couldn't see any water."

The RSPCA inspector said there were flies throughout the property and he could not get into one room because it was so full of rubbish.

He said the dogs all had fleas, as did some of the cats - two of which were pregnant.

Mr Pritchard said he then drove to the stables at Henfield where he found four horses kept by the Hocking family in a small paddock. There was another in a paddock in front of the stables.

There did not appear to be any grazing in either area for the animals.

The RSPCA inspector denied he went into the case specifically to push for a prosecution or that members of the public who reported the family had a grudge against them. He said: "My concern was, and always was, to try to prevent us from getting to this stage. If they had followed my advice we would not be here now."

The three defendants were interviewed by police, but all refused to answer any questions and instead gave prepared statements.

Sheila Hosking, in her statement, claimed all the family's animals were well cared for, fed and watered.

The trial continues.