An alcoholic who failed to feed his two retired racing greyhounds has been banned from keeping animals for a decade.

Landscape gardener Michael Cummins, 37, claimed he was too poor to buy pet food.

He admitted two counts of failing to provide his dogs with the necessary care and attention when he appeared before Brighton magistrates yesterday.

The court heard that the pets, Hector and Sox, had been given pizza the night before an RSPCA inspector arrived and tea and toast on the morning of the visit.

Prosecutor David Buck told the court that when Inspector Barbara Kvalheim called at Cummins' home at Atlingworth Street, Brighton, in May 2001, she discovered the dogs were underfed and the house stank.

He said: "Both dogs were massively infested with fleas and the skin on some parts of the dogs badly showed signs of bacteria. Both dogs ravished the food when they were offered a snack. The environment was untidy and smelled strongly of dog urine and faeces."

Vet Marc Abraham inspected the animals and found both male greyhounds weighed just over 22 kilograms, almost a third under their natural body weight. Their claws had not been clipped for at least six months, he told the court.

Roger Booth, defending, said his client had wanted to save them from being destroyed.

He said: "It is known there is a sort of heartlessness about dogs who are no longer available to race."

Mr Booth said Cummins had been told both dogs could be put down - one was due to be killed by having a brick smashed against its head - unless he brought them home to look after.

But the defendant had been living on disability benefits since injuring his back and had been "rather stupid" to take on the extra responsibility of looking after the two retired racers, he added.

Chairwoman of the bench, magistrate Claire Brown, banned Cummins from owning a pet for ten years for "deliberately not feeding the dogs properly and prolonged neglect" and ordered him to pay £450 in compensation to the RSPCA with £300 in costs Cummins has since moved to Lingfield in Surrey.