A DOG owner from Weymouth has hit out at an animal rescue centre for the state of the dog he received from them.

Angry Idris Martin said he was shocked to find out the litany of problems the dog had after getting it from Dorset Dog Rescue which has been accused of mistreating dogs and illegal dog smuggling.

As reported in the Echo, Dorset Police are investigating the centre after it was accused of illegally smuggling dogs into the United Kingdom on the Inside Out South programme on BBC1.

The Poole-based centre was accused of receiving between 40 and 80 dogs a month, which were alleged to have been transported from Ireland in poor conditions and without proper health checks.

Some of the pets were also alleged to have come from “puppy farms”.

Now, Mr Martin, from Weymouth, has criticised the centre and said a dog he bought from the centre, a Labrador-cross called Sheba, needed veterinary treatment for numerous conditions.

Mr Martin said he paid £200 for the dog and said when he first met the dog it was obvious she was not in “tip-top condition”.

She had no chest hair, a mark that looked like a scar on the pooch’s nose, an ear infection, Kennel Cough and she was two kilograms underweight.

He said he was forced to pay more than £100 in veterinary bills to get Sheba treatment after he bought her.

And he says he is still buying medication for the recurring ear infection.

Mr Martin said: “She’s a lovely dog and she was fully grown when we got her, but you could see she wasn’t in tip-top condition.

“We never saw the dog or the condition it was kept in before. We didn’t see the kennel.

“We saw the dog on their website and then they delivered it to us. We phoned up the centre to complain and all they said was we should have taken her to a vet in Bournemouth.

“When we first had her, if you picked up a stick she would cower away in the corner, she thought she was going to be hit.”

Mr Martin said he was upset after watching the programme on BBC1, but said the allegations had not surprised him.

Mr Martin said: “We thought it was a charity, but we watched the programme and the owner was sat in a 4x4 and it upset us.

“I think we expected it really, but the alleged extent of the operation and the organisation of it shocked us a little bit.

“Sheba is ok now after being treated by our vet, and she is great with kids, but we still had to pay a lot of money just after we bought her.”

Dorset Dog Rescue refused to comment when approached by the Echo with these allegations, but Julie Liddle, owner of the rescue centre, has denied the accusations following the BBC programme and said they are taking legal action against the corporation.