A couple convicted of cruelty to animals are on the run in Australia after fleeing with up to 100 dogs in a trailer.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Joseph and Margarete Higham, who went missing after being convicted of 11 counts of mistreating dogs. They were sentenced in their absence at Adelaide Magistrates' Court last week after being convicted of charges relating to 200 dogs, 120 of which were seized in the past two years during raids by the RSPCA in South Australia.

The RSPCA said yesterday that many of the dogs had been suffering from malnourishment, the parasitic skin disease mange, eye ulcers, open sores and other health problems including fleas and worms.

Officers had to leave 70 animals behind and eventually destroyed 70 of those taken. Only a handful of the seized dogs remain alive.

A witness told the court that one animal's breed had been unrecognisable because it was bald and so affected by mange that its skin had turned black. The veterinarian said that the two-year-old terrier cross had “suffered his whole life” and that she had been forced to put it down. “It would not have been pleasant to have horrible backbones sticking out and a big pot belly full of worms,” she told the court.

The couple had previously been convicted of 123 cruelty offences farther north, in New South Wales, and an unconfirmed number in Queensland, the RSPCA said yesterday. The animal welfare organisation fears that a similar fate will befall the dogs still in the Highams' possession.

“Unfortunately, we believe they now have another 100 dogs in their possession,” Aimee McKay, a spokeswoman for the RSPCA, said. “We're obviously concerned about them, especially given we've found out they cannot seem to have animals without being cruel to them.”

Ms McKay said it was believed that Joseph, 66, and Margarete, 73, suffered from a type of mental illness known as animal hoarding.

“Like people hoard things in their garage, they hoard dogs,” she said.

Animal hoarders, who typically deny their ailment, are people who accumulate more animals than they can care for.

While the illness is poorly researched, several cases are known to have involved more than 1,000 dogs, cats and other species.

Ms McKay urged people to look out for the pair, who were driving a twin-cab utility vehicle with an enclosed metal trailer full of dogs.

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