WISCASSET, Maine — A 25-year-old Waldoboro woman pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals, and her mother is set for trial Friday on the same charge, after police say they found their two pit bulls under horrific conditions, one only hours away from death.
Dakota Chandler pleaded guilty before Justice Daniel Billings earlier this month to the Class C felony, District Attorney Jonathan Liberman said Monday. Sentencing was continued to a later date.
Chandler’s mother, Melinda S. Allen, 50, also of Waldoboro, is scheduled for trial Friday morning in Wiscasset Superior Court on the same charge.
The two women were indicted in March by a Lincoln County grand jury. Police issued them criminal summonses on Oct. 24, 2017, after they allegedly found Apollo, a 5-month-old pit bull mix, living in an 18-inch cat crate too small for him to stand or turn, and Carmen, also a pit bull mix, near death.
The felony crime of aggravated cruelty to animals alleges that someone “in a manner manifesting a depraved indifference to animal life or suffering, did intentionally, knowingly or recklessly cause extreme physical pain to an animal; cause the death of an animal; or physically torture an animal.”
Veterinarian Dr. Robin Elms, who treated both dogs on Oct. 23, wrote in a statement that Apollo, owned by Allen, was defecating and urinating in the same crate in which he was kept, that his paws were scalded from standing in its own urine, that he had fleas and was 5 pounds underweight, “with ribs clearly protruding.”
The dog’s legs were bowed, and its gait was severely affected from the cramped quarters, she said.
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