AR-News: (TX - US)Judge sentences woman to 3 days bread/water for starving horses

[Snugglezzz at aol.com]

Texas animal abuse brings stiff sentence



Houston, TX, Jun. 8 (UPI) -- A Houston judge has sentenced a woman to spend the first three days of a 30-day sentence on bread and water for neglecting her horses.

Melissa Dawn Sweeney, 28, of Baytown, was convicted last Friday on two counts of cruelty to animals for neglecting two horses she kept outside her trailer home. She allegedly left the horses unfed and unsheltered for more than four months.

Harris County Criminal Court at Law Judge Mike Peters signed off on the unusual bread and water sentence Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported.

"She's going to get more than her horses got," he said.

Prosecutors said the horses were emaciated, diagnosed with intestinal infections and a skin condition. One of the animals had severe abscesses on his hoofs. 

Sweeney said she fed the animals about 28 pounds of food a day and their condition was due to their old age. The horses were in their mid-20s and horses in good health can live into their early 30s, the Chronicle said.