BANGOR, Maine — A former Orrington animal control officer charged with animal cruelty denied Thursday that she failed to properly care for her goats.

Carla Damon, 57, of Orrington entered her denial on the civil violation at an arraignment at the Penobscot Judicial Center.

A denial in a civil violation is comparable to a not-guilty plea in a criminal case. She was not required to post bail.

Damon does not face jail time but could be fined up to $500, according to the Penobscot County District attorney’s office.

Brendan Trainor, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said Thursday that the animal cruelty charge was lodged in connection with the condition of three of Damon’s goats, not the entire herd of 10 animals.

After learning from the state Animal Welfare Program of the improvements that were required of her to care for the goats, Damon shot and killed all 10 animals, according to a previously published report. She is not charged in connection with the slaying of the goats.

Damon declined Thursday to speak with reporters.

Last month, Damon told the Bangor Daily News that she she learned on Sept. 3 — just before the start of Labor Day weekend — that she was the subject of a complaint lodged with the state Animal Welfare Program about the condition of some of the goats she had been boarding at the Curran Homestead, a local living history and farm museum in Orrington.

After inspecting the goats and their living quarters, a state animal welfare agent provided Damon a list of things that needed to be corrected if she wanted to keep her herd.

Damon said, however, that she was unable to comply with some of the changes the state wanted because she did not own the property on which the goats were housed and because she wasn’t given enough time to address the corrections.

“There was a long list of things that needed to be corrected, some structural things and some complaints about lack of care and lack of feeding because I had two that were a little on the thin side, but they were older goats that had been bred every year,” Damon said in a telephone interview in September.

Maine law allows the owner of a livestock animal to shoot it provided it is done humanely.

Damon said she would have preferred to have the goats processed for meat, but she was unable to find an opening before late December.

The agent’s report concerning the condition of the goats that led to the summons is not a public document, Trainor said Thursday after Damon’s arraignment.

She resigned her position on Sept. 10, according to a previously published report.

Damon is next due in court on Dec. 15.

BDN writer Dawn Gagnon contributed to this report.