A teenager who dumped a puppy down a rubbish chute, thinking it was dead, has been banned from keeping animals for five years.

Bradford magistrates heard how Phillip Moore panicked when the five-week-old dog, Bouncer, accidentally slipped from his grasp and fell more than 30 feet from a third-floor balcony.

After the dog landed on a patch of grass outside Santon House in the Manchester Road area of the city, he picked it up, thinking it was dead. He put it into a bin at the bottom of a rubbish chute.

Bradford magistrates heard how the dog then spent two days without food and water before it was found alive.

The retriever cross, which has now been given a new home, suffered a bruised leg in the ordeal but made a full recovery.

When interviewed about the incident last February, Moore denied throwing it out of the window. He said that he put the dog in a bin because he thought it was dead.

Moore, 19, of Aberdeen Place, Lidget Green, Bradford, pleaded guilty to cruelly ill-treating the puppy. Mitigating, Alistair Bateman told the court Moore accepted that an accident took place with the puppy.

He said: "Moore thought it was dead. He did not look at the dog carefully enough."

He bitterly regretted his "sick and stupid" actions, added Mr Bateman.

Moore was ordered to do 120 hours' community service and pay £120 costs.

The RSPCA's Lauren Flanagan said: "We always seeks a life ban on keeping animals when taking a prosecution for cruelty to court but we are pleased the magistrates imposed a five-year ban."