The sentencing of the Utica couple who severely neglected more than 50 dogs has animal lovers outraged. The sentence was handed down last week with just 7 years of probation for each person, but no jail time despite being originally charged with 10 felony counts.


The A.N.N.A. Shelter posted on Facebook an update on the sentencing, but the news outraged many animal lovers who saw it. Erie News Now reached out to the A.N.N.A. Shelter's Humane Officer Eric Duckett who helped in the rescue and some of the adopters about the sentences.

Officer Duckett said cruelty cases are out of their hands once the charges are filed, but they always hope the punishment fits the crime. In this case, Duckett agrees with the public it does not, "We feel the same frustration. We're out here working every day to help these animals, so when we do all the work necessary and file all the paperwork and it comes down to just probation, it's a frustrating matter."

Duckett noted it's possible the couple's ages had something to do with the sentences; both are in their 70's. However, it seems to be rare that anybody does get a felony or jail time for animal cruelty.

"I think I'm going on my third year of doing this," Officer Duckett said, "I've only had one case that the person did receive jail time and that was a felony, but all other felony charges are usually dropped to lower levels and I haven't seen anybody else receive any jail time yet."

A couple of the adopters of the dogs rescued from this case also spoke out on the issue. Libby Remanche adopted one of the puppies born after the rescue and said it's a miracle her dog is alive.

"If her mother gave birth to her while in those conditions—without proper nutrition, vet care—I don't think she would probably be here today if her mother wasn't rescued when she was," Remanche said.

Another adopter, Kayla Olson, said her dog Clyde was one of the reasons the couple was charged with a felony count. "It surely doesn't feel like enough of a sentence to cover the time, energy and finances it has taken to rehab Clyde," Olson said, "and he was only 1/51 dogs rescued, which doesn't include the resources needed for all the puppies born after the rescue!"

Remanche agreed, saying the couple should have had a hard lesson to learn. "They should have been made an example of, so people take adopting or purchasing animals in the future a little more seriously," she said.

The dogs were rescued from the couple's Venango County trailer on December 11th, 2018 and 40 of the rescued dogs were placed in new homes by the end of the following January.

Adopters like Olson are happy the animals were given a second chance at life, but hope the seemingly light sentence doesn't make others believe they can continue to neglect or abuse animals. "The community really pulled together to support the rescue efforts and hopefully can continue to pull together to make a lasting change to prevent something this heinous from occurring again," Olson said.

She continued, "All of this couldn't be done without the incredible work the ANNA Shelter does and the support from so many community members. At this point all we can do is work together for prevention!"