Woman charged with animal cruelty gets a taste of her own medicine

A judge decided that the defendant in an animal abuse case deserved to suffer the same treatment she had inflicted upon her pets as punishment for her crime.

An Ohio judge, Michael Cicconetti, came up with a rather creative punishment for an animal abuser who left her dog to live in filth for a week at her home.

ABC News reported in 2015 that the judge from Painesville, Ohio, decided that the punishment should be a perfect fit for the crime at hand, and should teach the defendants a valuable lesson in cruelty.

There are many people and organizations working to help animals being abused or neglected, and they have recently procured plenty of support from the judge from Painesville Municipal Court.

The judge himself is also an animal lover, and stated that he is displeased by seeing so many abusers get little to no punishment for the torment they inflict on innocent animals.

He then began giving out creative sentences that much better befit the crimes. His punishments are not cruel, but a bit unusual for a courtroom and often come with a difficult choice to be made.

He said, “It doesn’t mean that they can’t deal with a little discomfort and embarrassment.”

One woman was brought to the court after animal rescue found her dog, Moose, living in a mess of his own urine and feces. Judge Cicconetti handed out a punishment which would give the woman a taste of her own medicine.

She was to spend eight hours in filth, just as she had forced her poor dog to live in.

His words to her were: “I want you to go down to the county dump, to the landfill… and I want you to sit there for eight hours.”

He also added some instructions for the people in charge of the landfill – find the “stinkiest, smelliest, God-awful odor place” they can find in the dump.

Judge Cicconetti wanted her to spend the time she had to sit in the dump and think about how she felt, and realize that that is how she had been forcing her dog to live.

The woman did have an option though. If she wasn't prepared to sit in the dump for 8 hours, she could instead spend 90 days in jail.

She chose the dump at the Lake County Solid Waste Facility. While there, she was allocated a job picking up rubbish in the area.

Another person who abandoned a dozen kittens in the woods was also handed a similar sentence to her cruel treatment by Cicconetti. The judge ordered her to spend one night in the woods by herself, according to News 5 Cleveland.

He wanted her to feel what it was like to be dumped in a metro park late at night, and listen to the coyotes and raccoons scrabbling around to find their next meal, as that is the torment she had brought to those kittens.