A dog owner, whose pet starved to death after he gave it to a 16-year-old boy to look after, has had his jail sentence quashed.

Wajid Hussain, 24, had been sentenced to four months’ imprisonment by Bradford Magistrates last November after he was convicted of permitting unnecessary suffering to a dog.

The 16-year-old, who admitted causing unnecessary suffering, was given a four-month detention and training order.

Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday that Hussain’s three-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, Razor, had been found dead at his former home in Acres Street, Keighley, in December 2007, three months after he was evicted from the property.

Razor was around half the weight he should have been and had died of starvation.

Nicholas Askins, for Hussain, who was appealing against his sentence, said Razor had been a family pet but dogs were not allowed at Hussain’s new property. He had given it to the teenager, who had regularly visited and walked Razor at the previous house, to look after.

Judge Roger Scott, sitting with two magistrates, said that imposing the same sentence for causing and permitting suffering was not justified and said the correct sentence should be a community punishment with 150 hours of unpaid work.

He also reduced a lifetime ban on keeping animals to one of ten years.