CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #1070 Rating: 3.7 out of 5
Four puppies thrown into shredding machine
Tulare, CA (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Jul 10, 2001
County: Tulare
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Brandon James Ferguson
Brandon James Ferguson, 26, pleaded no contest to four felony counts of cruelty to animals for slaughtering four stray puppies by casting them into an agricultural shredder, one felony count of dissuading a witness from reporting the crime and one felony count of threatening a witness. No contest is viewed as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.
Ferguson faces as many as four years and four months in prison when he is sentenced in September. He would have faced up to six years if convicted by a jury.
Prosecutor John Jackson said he will review Ferguson's probation report and likely ask Judge James Hollman to hand down the most severe sentence possible. Rendahl said he will argue that Ferguson should be sentenced to no more than a year in jail and probation.
Ferguson was arrested July 11 on suspicion of killing the puppies. Tulare County sheriff's officials that day received an anonymous tip that Ferguson a day earlier had put the puppies through a running silage chopper at Vieira Custom Chopping in Tulare.
Workers told authorities they saw Ferguson throw at least two puppies into the John Deere forage harvester, which typically is used to process wheat, corn and oats, court records say. Ferguson killed the puppies in frustration over droppings they were leaving throughout the factory area, said Rendahl, who added that the killings weren't planned.
Court records, however, indicate Ferguson's co-workers told investigators that, in the past, the defendant said he wanted to "play baseball" with the puppies and "zip-tie their legs so he could run them over to get rid of them."
Co-workers told authorities Ferguson threatened and intimidated them after the crime was committed. Rendahl, however, questioned whether the intimidation occurred: "Not everything he's charged with is what he did."
The puppies, which appeared to be 8 to 10 weeks old and of a shepherd-Labrador mix, had been at the business since the mother had given birth.
The surviving mother and a lone pup were taken to Companion Animal Medical Center in Visalia for adoption. References« CA State Animal Cruelty Map
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