A man who kept chickens in appalling and filthy conditions in the back of a trailer has been ordered to do 80 hours unpaid work.

Bradford Magistrates' Court was told today the 12 chickens and 14 bantams belonging to Paul Pratt were cooped up in the back of a dirty trailer without food, water or sunlight.

The birds were suffering from foot rot and were infested with fleas and other parasites, the court heard.

Nigel Monaghan, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said that one bird had died and two others had to be put down because they were so ill.

A vet who treated the surviving birds gave them a body condition score of one out of five - with zero being the most unhealthy.

Mr Monaghan said Inspector Carol Neale was called to the allotment site at the junction of New Lane and Dick Lane, Laisterdyke, by an animal health inspector in November last year.

Once she got inside the trailer and saw the birds were thin and had been left without nourishment. They would have also have been in severe discomfort because of the parasitic infestation.

When Pratt was interviewed, he told officers that he would go up to the allotment every day to look after them.

At a previous hearing Pratt, 22, of Portsmouth Avenue, Wapping, pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty and he conceded that the animals had been left in a disgusting condition.

As well as the unpaid work the magistrates banned Pratt from ever owing birds, poultry and game for the rest of his life and ordered him to pay £1,400 in prosecution costs.