A WOMAN who worked for an illegal puppy farm has been rumbled attempting to open a new kennels.
Frank James, brother Edward and 18-year-old son Sean were all convicted of keeping 72 dogs in horrific conditions in 2014.
Now a fresh application to build kennels on the same Aberdeenshire farm has sparked outcry among campaigners – who fear more animals could be put at risk.
And The Sunday Post can reveal the woman named in the application, Michelle Wood, is believed to have worked as an employee at the James’s illegal puppy farm before it was closed.
Sources close to the original investigation confirmed Ms Wood, 28, worked as a kennel assistant associated with the James family.
When The Sunday Post visited the remote farmyard site near Fyvie in Aberdeenshire last week, Ms Wood was tending to a number of dogs in a fenced-off enclosure surrounded by free standing cabins.
But she denied being involved in the puppy farm in 2014 and said she was not employed by the James family.
She declined to answer further questions and asked our reporter to leave when it was pointed out her name was on the planning application for kennels at the site.
She said: “I don’t care. Go away.”
Photos taken by Scottish SPCA investigators in 2013 show dogs being kept in horrific conditions at the East Mains of Ardlogie puppy farm.
Some were left in a silage pit with no way to get out, while many suffered from lice, skin sores and matted hair. Others developed cysts on their paws as a result of animal faeces littering the floor.
The James family are known to use the Fyvie site, with Sean giving his address as the farm when he was cleared of animal cruelty charges in 2015.
The current planning application – signed by Michelle Wood, who locals also linked to the James family – has been submitted in retrospect, meaning the kennels have already been built. It seeks to gain permanent permission for the structures.
Last year, a bid for a puppy breeding licence on the farm submitted by Elizabeth James, Frank’s daughter, was withdrawn at the 11th hour.
Graham Ogston, who is listed as the landowner on the latest application, said he did not know any details about it.
Asked why he had allowed kennels to be built on his land when an illegal puppy farm was previously found there, he insisted: “Every dog is as clean as a whistle. They are pretty well looked after.”
Aberdeenshire Council confirmed a decision has still to be made, with no dog breeding permit currently in place on the site.
A Scottish SPCA spokeswoman said it was “committed to improving the welfare of puppies in Scotland as well as those being brought into the country to be sold”.
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