Banned: David Duckworth cannot keep dogs for 10 years after performing DIY surgery on his lurcher

An unemployed dog owner performed DIY surgery on his own pet without using any anaesthetic - and then bragged about the cruel act on Facebook.

David Duckworth, 23, gave his pet lurcher Tess penicillin - believing it was a painkiller - before giving her 15 stitches in her chest.

He claimed on Facebook that she had been 'good as gold', but shocked people who saw the post complained to the RSPCA.

Duckworth has been banned from keeping dogs for 10 years. The sentence, handed out by magistrates at Burnley Crown Court, was originally two years, but was increased when he appealed.

When inspectors told him that penicillin is an antibiotic and not a painkiller, he responded that they were the same thing, adding: 'You take them for headaches'.

Tess had cut her chest on barbed wire, and the court also heard how Duckworth did not take another of his dogs - a tan lurcher named Cleo - to the vets when she suffered a wound on her leg.

He had again treated the dog, which was found in a house in Blackburn, by himself.

The court rejected Duckworth's claims that Tess was not his dog, and that he had been looking after her for a friend who he would not name. He called the dog 'my lass' in his Facebook post.

He also claimed that the penicillin was not his, that he did not inject it, and that the photos were 'just bragging', the Lancashire Telegraph reports.

'I was just being stupid. People on Facebook were telling me it was mental,' he said.

Duckworth, from Eton Close in Padiham, Lancashire, said he used Cleo and another dog, named Honey, for catching rats and rabbits.

Warning - graphic content below

Cruel: Duckworth gave one dog, Tess, 15 stitches in her chest, and left another, Cleo, with a wound on her leg

He had posted pictures on Facebook of the dogs beside dead deer and foxes, suggesting that he illegally used them for hunting.

Duckworth claimed that these dead animals were roadkill.

Judge Beverley Lunt said the bench was satisfied Tess was Duckworth's dog, and that he had treated her himself to conceal how she had suffered her injury.

'Plainly, the reason he wouldn't take it to the vet was because questions would be asked about how the dog had received such a significant injury on barbed wire,' she said.

Duckworth admitted to performing DIY surgery on Tess and failing to take reasonable steps to protect Cleo from pain, suffering and disease.

Wounded: Judge Beverley Lunt said Duckworth showed a disregard for the welfare of his animals

Magistrates fined him £110, with £100 costs and £20 victim surcharge, ordered that Cleo be removed from his care and banned him from keeping dogs for two years.

He appealed, but had the ban increased to 10 years, with Judge Lunt saying he had shown disregard for his pets' welfare and that animals needed to be protected from him.

'Any reasonable dog owner who had its welfare at heart would have taken it to a vet and any vet would have prescribed pain medication. We are satisfied it's more his luck than judgement that the wound did not become infected,' she added.

Cleo has been in kennels since she was taken from Duckworth in November, and could now be given a new home by the RSPCA.

Nicholas Clarke, who works for the charity, told of how inspectors went to Duckworth's house on November 17 last year after receiving reports that he had been seen stitching up a dog.

He told them that he had performed surgery on his pets a number of times, adding: 'I'm more qualified than most vets.'

A separate visit on November 29 found Duckworth not to be home, but did discover Cleo with a four centimetre long gash on her right hind leg.

She was taken into RSPCA care and treated by a vet.