Another notable long sentence for cruel animal mistreatment

For whatever reason, I am noticing a number of notable recent sentencing stories involving pets and aninals.  A couple of weeks ago, I blogged here about notable federal sentences given to criminal cat kickers, and a few days ago I flagged here the story of negligent dog owners in Texas getting sentenced in state court to decades in prison when their dogs killed an elderly man.  Today, the latest notable sentencing story in this (interesting?) genre comes from Alabama and involves horses as well as dogs.  This local reporting, headlined "Colbert County woman sentenced to 30 years for animal abuse," details the basics:

A Colbert County woman who was found guilty of animal cruelty was sentenced on Tuesday.  A judge sentenced Debra Catledge to a 30-year split sentence.  That means she will only have to serve nine years. Catledge will then be on probation for the remainder of her sentence. If she violates her probation she will be sent back to prison for the remainder of her sentence.

In August, a Colbert County jury found Catledge guilty. The charges were filed after Colbert County deputies found dead horses and more than 60 malnourished dogs and horses on her property.

When she was convicted, Colbert County Assistant District Attorney Dustin McCown said this should be a warning and an example to everyone in Colbert County. “We are doing everything we can to keep this type of behavior and conduct from something that is acceptable here,” McCown said. “I don’t think it’s acceptable here but we are going to show that we will enforce the laws on these types of cases.”

This local story from earlier this year provides a few more details about what seems to have been a pretty extreme case of animal cruelty.  In addition, a little google searching turned up this story from 10 years ago suggesting that this defendant had previously been charged with animnal cruelty in conjunction with running a puppy mill.  All that context perhaps makes nine years in prison and an additional two decades on probation a bit easier to understand.

Prior recent related posts:

• A reminder that kicking a cat down the road can get you sentenced to years in a federal prison 
• Negligent owners get decades in prison for deadly failings to control dogs