{"id":91320,"date":"2019-12-12T22:29:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T22:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/final-defendant-sentenced-in-large-scale-animal-abuse-case\/"},"modified":"2019-12-12T22:29:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T22:29:22","slug":"final-defendant-sentenced-in-large-scale-animal-abuse-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/final-defendant-sentenced-in-large-scale-animal-abuse-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Final defendant sentenced in large-scale animal abuse case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"La
La Plata County Animal Protection and the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office seized about 110 animals from a property in southwest La Plata County on suspicion of animal abuse, including this horse. The owners of the property, Jeffrey and Elizabeth Jackson, have both been sentenced to three years of probation.<\/span>Courtesy of La Plata County Humane Society<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A La Plata County man accused of mistreating more than 100 animals has been barred by court order from owning another animal for three years.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement accused Jeffery Jackson of 115 counts of animal cruelty after La Plata County Animal Protection seized dozens of animals \u2013 including dogs, cats, goats, a duck and horses \u2013 from his southwest La Plata County home. Jackson pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and has been sentenced to three years of probation.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Jackson, a co-defendant, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years of probation. Both declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Judge Dondi Osborne at a sentencing hearing Wednesday called the conditions of the property \u201cdeplorable\u201d \u2013 recalling one shih tzu stuck to carpet by dried feces.<\/p>\n

\"A
A shih tzu seized from the Jackson property in southwest La Plata County. The owners, Jeffery and Elizabeth Jackson, have both pleaded guilty to animal abuse.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The agreement between Jeffery Jackson and the 6th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office \u201censures conviction,\u201d Osborne said. It requires probation for three years with a condition that he not own animals and allow law enforcement to search his property to ensure no livestock or pets are on the premises, the same conditions the judge ordered for Elizabeth Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe house was described as having feces and carcasses of animals that died and had not been removed,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t afford to ensure ready and abundant food for animals \u2013 it\u2019s your responsibility to relinquish it. Decency demands it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense attorney John Baxter said his client \u201creally cared for his animals.\u201d Assistant District Attorney David Ottman said evidence does not show that the Jacksons harmed the animals with intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis family loved their animals,\u201d he said, repeating his argument from the co-defendant\u2019s case. \u201cBut they literally loved some animals to death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case against the Jackson\u2019s \u201clooks to be more about mental health issues and poverty instead of intentionally hurting the animals,\u201d said District Attorney Christian Champagne, in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very different situation from people who intentionally hurt an animal,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is more of a sad case of people who thought they were loving animals and clearly were not.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Jackson violates the terms of his probation, Osborne could sentence him to one year in jail as a condition of his guilty plea. Jackson is required to complete 50 hours of useful public service and pay restitution in the amount of more than $18,000.<\/p>\n

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

living conditions \u2018deplorable\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[382,1515,2822,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal","tag-judiciary-system-of-justice","tag-justice-and-rights","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91320","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=91320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91320"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}