A Croydon animal charity which discovered puppies being bred in horrific conditions is calling for legislation to prevent the same thing happening again.

Croydon Animal Samaritans is trying to find new homes for 17 of more than 200 dogs found living knee-deep in excrement and among other dead animals at the unregistered puppy farm in Sussex over the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Barbara Allen, who runs the Croydon charity from her cattery in Pampisford Road, was alerted by a relative of the puppy farm's elderly owner, who died suddenly on Easter Sunday.

She said discovering the dogs mostly Yorkshire terriers shut in a filthy shed were the worst conditions she had encountered in almost 35 years of animal rescue.

"I was speechless," she said. "I've never seen such disgusting conditions.

"The animals were in a terrible state.

"We've had to shave many of them to get rid of their matted fur and some of their claws have never been trimmed.

"I believe that some of those dogs have spent their entire lives in that shed.

"People have been calling us from all over the country, and we've even had calls from Japan and Canada, but we've decided only to re-home locally so we can continue checking on the dogs' progress.

"From the outside you would never have known what horrors lay behind those doors.

"It looked like a perfectly respectable home.

"If one good thing is to come out of this it's that there needs to be Government legislation to stop this from happening again."

The elderly woman, who used to be a licensed breeder, was no longer thought to be registered to breed puppies.

Croydon Animal Samaritans is aiming to re-home 17 dogs including puppies and their mothers once the animals have been nursed back to health.

The charity would like to thank Mark and Ann Nelson for providing veterinary care of the animals, the Celia Hammond Trust in Lewisham and the Kit Wilson Trust in Uckfield, East Sussex.

l If you can give a good home to one of the dogs, call Croydon Animal Samaritans on 020 8644 8829.