PENNSYLVANIA -- A Pulaski Township woman on probation for animal cruelty has been charged with two new counts for her alleged treatment of a dog, a cat and two birds.
Christine Lynn Cunningham, 46, of 2773 Marr Road, Pulaski, was charged Monday in District Judge Scott McGrath's court with failing to provide clean and sanitary shelter for two dogs and a cat by allowing feces and urine to accumulate over an extended period of time.
She is also charged with depriving the cat of food and water, causing it to become dehydrated and emaciated and with keeping two birds in "unclean and unsanitary shelter."
The district attorney's office was notified after two probation officers went to her home Nov. 10. The new charges are graded at a higher level because of the prior convictions for animal cruelty, according to court documents.
Cunningham has been on probation since October 2015 when she was sentenced in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court to four years and 90 days probation and fined $1,150 for three counts of cruelty to animals after a horse in her care starved to death in March and two other houses were found emaciated. Dogs in the house were also living in conditions where feces covered the floor, police said.
At the time, she was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and forbidden from keeping domestic pets while on probation.
Cunningham had been affiliated with animal rescue and foster groups and, according to court documents, told investigators she had failed to ask for help with the horses when her financial situation declined.
A preliminary hearing has been set for Dec. 14.
(NCNewsOnline - Nov 17, 2016)
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