{"id":73904,"date":"2019-08-09T19:37:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-10T01:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-woman-sentenced-for-animal-cruelty\/"},"modified":"2019-08-10T01:37:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-10T01:37:50","slug":"la-plata-county-woman-sentenced-for-animal-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/la-plata-county-woman-sentenced-for-animal-cruelty\/","title":{"rendered":"La Plata County woman sentenced for animal cruelty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Jackson property in southwest La Plata County was subject to a massive animal seizure in November 2017.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A La Plata County woman who had more than 100 animals seized from her property in 2017 was sentenced Friday to three years\u2019 probation after pleading guilty to five counts of animal cruelty.<\/p>\n

Eight people accompanied Elizabeth Jackson to her sentencing hearing in La Plata County Court, including her father, brother and family friends. Jackson sobbed throughout most of the 40-minute court hearing, often seen and heard hyperventilating between deep breaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved the animals,\u201d Jackson said through tears and sniffles. \u201c\u2026 Every single one of those animals had a name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Animal Protection accused Jackson of 115 counts of animal cruelty after the agency seized as many animals<\/a> from a derelict property in southwest La Plata County. Prosecutors reduced the number of charges to 31 counts of animal abuse<\/a> after an intensive investigation by law enforcement found the animals lived in cages filled with urine and feces.<\/p>\n

Animals had injuries that went untreated or lacked access to water and food \u2013 one horse was in such poor condition it had to be euthanized.<\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney David Ottman told County Court Judge Dondi Osborne he has no reason to believe Jackson is \u201ca bad person.\u201d The animals were \u201cloved to death,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does, in her own way, love these animals,\u201d Ottman said. \u201c\u2026 She was making some effort, although wholly inadequate, to take care of the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"La
La Plata County Animal Protection and the Sheriff\u2019s Office seized 115 animals in November 2017 in southwest La Plata County on suspicion of animal abuse, including this horse.<\/span>Courtesy of La Plata County Humane Society<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gordon Baxter, who spoke as a character witness on Jackson\u2019s behalf, told Judge Osborne he \u201cpretty much grew up with\u201d the defendant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know her grandmother gave her a sense of things to do that were right,\u201d Baxter told the judge. \u201cI\u2019ve never known Liz to go against what she was taught.\u201d<\/p>\n

The terms of the plea agreement forbid Jackson from owning animals during the length of her three-year probation. Osborne gave La Plata County Animal Protection and La Plata County Probation officers the authority to randomly search her property to ensure no livestock or pets are under Jackson\u2019s care.<\/p>\n

Defense attorney Eric Morrow asked that his client be able to own one dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a crime of negligence and she\u2019s taken responsibility; she got overwhelmed with animals \u2013 she had too many to take care of,\u201d Morrow said. \u201cIt would be in the defendant\u2019s and therefore society\u2019s best interest that she have a dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"La
La Plata County Animal Protection and the Sheriff\u2019s Office seized 115 animals in November 2017 in southwest La Plata County on suspicion of animal abuse, including this Shih Tzu mix.<\/span>Courtesy of La Plata County Humane Society<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Law enforcement in 2017 seized a small Shih Tzu mix<\/a> with severely matted hair that \u201cwas stuck to the floor of the residence by its own feces,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Most animals, according to court records, were housed in a manner that resulted in \u201cchronic or repeated serious physical harm.\u201d The accounts show they were also deprived of necessary sustenance, mistreated and neglected.<\/p>\n

Also, nearly all the animals were in danger of stepping on \u201cnumerous amounts of metal debris\u201d on the property. Several animals had been injured by the metal debris, including a pig found with a nail in its foot, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the root cause, the conditions were unacceptable and criminal,\u201d Osborne said before denying Jackson\u2019s request for a dog. \u201cThe suffering of these animals was real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson, who has also gone by the last name of Miera, may still be liable for restitution to La Plata County Animal Protection for costs of seizing the animals. If she violates her probation \u2013 either by breaking the law or owning an animal \u2013 Jackson could face one to two years in jail. She\u2019s also responsible for 50 hours of useful community service, as long as it doesn\u2019t involve the care of animals.<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Jackson is forbidden from owning animals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,28,1515,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-judiciary-system-of-justice","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73904"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}