Facing Criminal Charges Of Animal Abuse Or Neglect: How You Can Fight It
If you are facing criminal charges of animal abuse or neglect, you may still be able to fight the charges or get a lesser sentence with the help of a criminal defense attorney. Some states have pretty steep punishments for those found guilty of general animal abuse, while other states have lesser fines for first offenses. In many cases your lawyer can help you fight the charges if any of the following apply.
You Lost Your Job Recently and Cannot Buy Pet Food
It happens all of the time. You have one or more pets who are your babies, but then you cannot support them and feed them because you lost your job. Even on unemployment benefits, there is hardly enough money to go around to pay the bills and buy food for the humans in the household. It is a completely understandable situation, and without knowing about other resources that could help you feed and care for your pets, you might let them go for a few days at a time without food. If you can show that you have otherwise fed and cared for your pets and your present situation is all that is preventing you from doing a good job, your lawyer can present that evidence to the court and get the charges dropped.
Your Pets Are Sick but You Cannot Afford More Vet Visits, More Medicines or Euthanasia
Sometimes well-meaning people call the police, animal welfare and/or animal control groups when they see your sick pets roaming around outside. It creates an unfortunate series of events that leads you to stand before a judge and explain your situation. If you have already emptied your savings trying to save your sick pets, you may not have anything left to pay a vet for continued medical care, support or even euthanasia. Providing your attorney and the judge with veterinary records and documentation of your visits can help get the charges against you dropped, and possibly allow you to sign your sick animals over to animal control so that they may be put to sleep without any expense to you.
Your Pet Sitter Is Actually to Blame
If you go on a long business trip or vacation and you leave your pets in other people's care, you expect that your animals will be treated well. Coming home to a warrant for your arrest on charges of animal abuse or neglect is something that you need to fight and not ignore. Providing travel records and documentation, along with a cancelled check for pet sitting services and/or a contract for pet sitting will help the judge see that you did not hurt or neglect your animals and that you genuinely tried to provide for them in your absence. Then you, your lawyer and the police can go after the pet sitter who abused and/or neglected your pets instead.
For more information about fighting this sort of charge, contact a defense attorney such as Thomas A Corletta.
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