Couple banned from owning pets after 114 guinea pigs and 31 cats found in filthy home

A couple have been banned from owning pets for life after 114 guinea pigs and 31 cats were found packed into their faeces-filled home.

Michael Weston, 73, and Helen Weston, 61, both admitted five animal welfare offences and were also handed 12-week suspended prison sentences.

Newport Magistrates' Court was told some guinea pigs had been stacked in broken cages in the couple's dirty and cluttered living room with others running loose, with some cats displaying flu-like symptoms and having trouble breathing.

RSPCA chief inspector Emma Smith told the court in a written statement the conditions were the worst she had ever seen, adding: "The smell of faeces and ammonia was overwhelming."

The RSPCA said in a press release that the couple initially had had a small number of guinea pigs, but after the husband had developed health conditions and his wife had become his carer the guinea pigs bred and "things got on top of them".

It said Smith described seeing "ground-down faeces so thick and hard that it had produced a 'mud carpet' throughout the living room" during a visit to the Westons' house in the Duffryn area of Newport in May 2025.

She told the court on Wednesday that it had taken a veterinarian, a veterinary nurse and multiple RSPCA officers hours to locate and confine all the guinea pigs.

She added: "The room itself was swarming with moth-type creatures and the smell of stale and animal excrement was overwhelming."

Many of the guinea pigs had been in cages with no access to food or water, and some cages had broken and unravelled wiring.

Cats had been found on all three floors of the home, with many "displaying flu-like symptoms or ailments" and some with breathing problems, Smith said.

Some had access to water, but the litter trays and bedding were dirty and "strewn on the floor".

"The door was blocked by cat carriers and the smell of faeces and ammonia was overwhelming," she said.

"There were no windows, natural light or ventilation, just a lamp switched on the floor. It appeared as though this was the area where the cats spent all of their time.

On the third floor of the home inspectors found seven cats in the "worst room in the house".

"The smell of ammonia in this room was so overpowering that my eyes were watering, and my nose lining was burning," Smith said.

In the hallway between the first floor and the second floor she said a guinea pig had been found in a small animal enclosure.

"The wiring on the cage was broken and unravelled which meant it was unsafe with large, sharp, metal sticks.

"It also rendered the enclosure unsafe so the guinea pig could escape or another animal could access the animal.

"The cats that had been loose within the hallways were able to access the guinea pig.

"The guinea pig stood on what appeared to be a very thick mat of mud which I believe to be very old, ground down, compacted faeces."

The court heard the animal had no access to water and its only food was "shrivelled up vegetables".

The RSPCA said six guinea pigs and six cats had been too ill to survive their ordeal, but the remaining animals had been "happily rehomed".

As well as the lifetime ban on owning animals, the Westons were also both given 12-week custodial sentences that were suspended for 12 months.