An elderly woman who devoted her life to animals was charged with cruelty after an RSPCA raid on her sanctuary instigated by novelist Jilly Cooper. 

Norma Clutterbuck, who is believed to be in her 80s, was arrested in July last year after a team of RSPCA officers and police - accompanied by Cooper, her son and a vet - went to the Tethers End sanctuary, in Leeds. 

She pleaded guilty at Leeds Magistrates' Court to four charges of causing unnecessary suffering to two foxes and two marmoset monkeys. 

The court heard that the raid came after novelist Cooper, the sanctuary's patron, received complaints at a book signing in the city about the state of the animals. She contacted the RSPCA. 

Mr Tony Kelbrick, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said most of the animals, including horses, donkeys and numerous dogs, were in a reasonable condition. 

But when the team went into a box room in the house they found four foxes, four marmosets, two African grey parrots and a cockatoo in what an RSPCA inspector described as "a disgusting condition". 

Mr Kelbrick said there was no ventilation, and the floor was littered with excreta and stale food. Vets concluded that several of the animals were unwell and most were unhappy, he said. 

But he added: "The findings of these vets shows that the animals had suffered unnecessarily, but what they do not show and what is not put forward or suggested is that there was any deliberate act of cruelty." 

Mr Gerald Lumley, defending, said Clutterbuck had devoted her life to animals and took creatures in when no-one else would. 

He read letters from welishers criticising Cooper and other "do-gooders" who had never visited the sanctuary. 

He said Clutterbuck fed the animals in the room well and tried her best. He added: "She is the last person in the world to be deliberately cruel to an animal." 

Stipendiary magistrate Mr Graham Manchester conditionally discharged Clutterbuck for two years. 

She was ordered to pay pounds 1,000 costs and disqualified for life from owning wild mammals and birds, reptiles and all exotic mammals and birds. She will still be able to run the sanctuary.