Dogs taken into the care of Government kennels are kept in cages in virtual darkness and given no exercise, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

The shocking conditions were discovered after a concerned dog lover on the Island contacted the newspaper to highlight the lack of facilities for animals captured by the dog warden.

And yesterday The Royal Gazette visited the kennels and discovered that both warden Jeffrey Benevides and his assistant Harry Bean were so overworked answering scores of complaints about the poor treatment of dogs on the Island, that they were unable to spend hardly any time at the kennels.

It means the dogs they capture, which are either held for just a few days or kept as evidence for court cases for as long as six to nine months, are left unattended and without exercise.

The kennels should have a full-time member of staff to feed, clean and exercise the animals, most of them pit bull terriers, but Government budgets do not allow it.

Contractors are about to replace the floor and drop the roof at the pound, but greater light and security is needed, along with a kennel run and a full-time kennel assistant.

In the meantime, the captured dogs have been taken to a temporary makeshift kennel, in a secret location, which is even worse than the original.

Again, there is no natural light for the dogs and nowhere for them to be exercised.

They remain in cages about three feet by six feet until they are released or put down.

Last night, the anonymous dog expert who blew the lid on the conditions of the pound said action had to be taken to improve dog care on the Island prior to any amendments being made to the Dogs Act 1978.

He said: "The facility the dogs currently occupy is deplorable. The dogs are being kept in cages that are approximately three feet by six feet long.

"They do not get walked or exercised at all.

"They get fed once a day. Sometimes it will be 8 a.m. today and not until 8 p.m. tomorrow evening.

"Some of these dogs are in these kennels for six to eight months pending court cases and never get taken out of the kennel for the entire time.

"The stench from the faeces and urine is believed to be almost unbearable during the summer months because the building is closed up all of the time and they have no extractor fans, ceiling fans or air conditioning to help move the air.

"The entire dog warden section needs to be reviewed immediately.'' The concerned dog lover also questioned the security at the kennels, which has been subjected to break-ins in the past, and said there was an insufficient number of kennels, which meant some dogs were not seized due to a lack of space. And his fears were mirrored by Bermuda's dog animal welfare charity, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which works closely with the dog wardens.

When asked about the state of the Government kennels, SPCA inspector Charles Whited said: "I was aware that the facilities were in great need of upgrading and are about to have some work done.

"But the kennels need a lot of investment and have been a concern to me.

Gov't kennels in a `deplorable' state "I was also aware that some of the dogs weren't being walked for six to nine months. They don't get the attention they need. That will have a very negative affect on the mental attitude of the dogs. They need exercise.

"But there is only one dog warden and an assistant and they are responsible for everything. They can't do everything. They need someone employed to take care of the facilities.'' Mr. Benevides and his assistant Mr. Bean receive complaints about the mistreatment of animals, investigate them, write reports and take animals into their care.

They spend a lot of time on the road checking on dogs considered to be possibly at risk.

The majority of the dogs they seize remain with them for about four days. Many found straying are passed back to their owners, some are handed to the SPCA and a few are put down.

However, dogs confiscated and needed as court evidence, or those unable to be passed to the SPCA for lack of space, will stay on in the Government pound for as long as necessary.

John Barnes, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, said the kennel was being renovated, but admitted that the dog warden and his assistant were so busy answering complaints, exercising the animals had to be a low priority.

But he claimed they were regularly walked and there was some light.

He said: "One of the reasons the kennel is dark is down to security. It's broken into, on average, once a week. Most animals are not held for very long periods of time.

"We don't have very many kennels and we frequently have a full house.'' And when asked why there was no one solely employed to look after the dogs at the kennels, the Director replied: "We only get what's provided from the Government Budget.

"With greater resources we could probably do more. We constantly ask for more.

"Walking the dogs may be a low priority, but the two wardens are very dedicated and they work extremely hard. I know they see the dogs every day.'' Mr. Benevides said he and his assistant visited the kennels every day to feed and wash out the floor of the cages.

But he admitted, the dogs were not walked at all and said having little light in the pounds was good as it prevented the temperature from rising too high.

He said dogs kept for long periods at the original kennels were occasionally tied up on a line outside for short spells while the wardens were in attendance.

However, there is no such facility at the temporary pound.

He added: "The original kennel will look much better once the renovations are complete. I don't know when that will be. There is so much for us to do in any one day. We work seven days a week and are constantly on call. But the priority has to be the complaints we receive. The facilities we have are not perfect, but they are clean and spacious enough. The conditions here are certainly better than what most of these animals have come from. It would be nice to have somebody else employed to spend time with the dogs, but we don't have that, so we have to do what we can.''