AR-News: (US PA) DJ: Allens guilty on all animal cruelty counts

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

THe Sentinel Online 
By Linda Franz, May 12, 2004
 
Lower Mifflin Township farmers Robert "Red" Allen and Dianne Allen, his 
daughter-in-law, were found guilty Tuesday on all charges of animal cruelty and 
neglect filed against them. 
After an all-day trial, District Justice Harold Bender found Red Allen guilty 
on 15 counts of animal cruelty and neglect and fined him $150 for each count.

In addition, Bender awarded the 14 animals that were confiscated by humane 
officers from Allen's farm Feb. 1 to the Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals and ordered him to pay $7,600 for the veterinary care of the animals 
after they were seized.

After the verdict, Austin Grogan, attorney for Red Allen, said he will appeal 
Bender's decision. "We're let down with the judge's decision - it's his 
opinion. We'll proceed with the appeal."

Fine increased

Bender initially found Dianne Allen guilty of two counts of animal neglect 
filed against her and fined her $50. She was accused of starving to death a duck 
and a chicken that were found dead in outdoor cages Feb. 1.

But Karl Rominger, Dianne Allen's attorney, said he had not rested his case 
and had not been allowed to present testimony. After Dianne Allen testified, 
Bender upheld his guilty verdict and upped her fine to $150 on each charge.


"I'm not buying your story," Bender told her.

Dianne Allen testified that the duck wasn't alive when it was put in the cage 
by her 8-year-old son. Later, she said she fed and watered the duck and 
chicken at 9:30 a.m. on the day humane officers seized animals at the farm.

Rominger presented as evidence a photo taken by Dianne Allen that showed food 
and water in the poultry cages after the visit by humane officers. But a 
photo taken by humane officers at the time they found the dead birds showed no 
food or water in their cages.




full story:
http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2004/05/13/news/news02.txt 



__________________________________________________________________________
for the news items that Animalconcerns volunteers have entered on the site go 
to the Animalconcerns.org main page and click on "More News Headlines." 

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````



    "The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those 
rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of 
tyranny. - Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 
The question is not can they REASON, nor can they TALK, but can they SUFFER?" 





         
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040513/b14daff3/attachment.html