PENNSYLVANIA -- A 73-year-old Schuylkill County woman accused of keeping her 17 dogs and one cat in "deplorable" conditions was neglectful enough to justify her conviction on 18 animal cruelty charges, a state court panel ruled.
By rejecting Elizabeth Shickora's appeal this week, the Superior Court judges upheld the thousands of dollars in fines and court costs levied on her.
The case against Shickora began in December 2013 when a Rush Township police officer went to her Quakake home to investigate a complaint about her animals.
The officer found dogs running free and in cages covered with feces in the smelly, trash-strewn house, according to the Superior Court opinion by Judge Cheryl Lynn Allen. The police officer and officials from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals testified that the dogs had worms, matted hair, flea infestations and eye problems.
The cat was found in a feces-covered cage in the basement, according to testimony. All the animals were seized, received medical treatment and were put up for adoption.
Shickora insisted she was innocent and said she had been in and out of the hospital with medical problems in the month before her animals were confiscated. Other people helped her to care for her pets, she testified.
In appealing her conviction by county Judge Cyrus P. Dolbin, Shickora claimed there was no evidence she acted "wantonly and cruelly" and so her convictions on the animal cruelty counts weren't legally justified.
Allen cited Dolbin's conclusion that Shickora "didn't have to intend to abuse the dogs. What she had to do was wantonly or cruelly neglect them, and that's exactly what she did."
The state judge agreed with Dolbin that the animal cruelty convictions were warranted because Shickora was "utterly indifferent" to the conditions in which the dogs and cat were living.
(PennLive - May 22, 2015)
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