Animal Control Officer Phil Lane says fighting chickens they found at Phillip Steven Gray's place were so thirsty they were burying their heads in water authorities gave them. Thirteen of the birds were found dead.
Gray was arrested while in court on traffic charges.
Authorities obtained the warrant on Aug 15, charging him with 31 counts of animal cruelty.
Gray blamed a neighbor, who he claims flipped his chicken coop over and injured the birds, for reporting him to animal control officers.
Gray was allowed to keep the surviving chickens. No date has been set for the animal cruelty charges to go before a judge. Case UpdatesA severe case of animal abuse in Sullivan County ended Tuesday when a man pleaded guilty to 30 charges of neglecting a flock of fighting chickens.
Phillip Steven Gray, 41, of Bluff City has until Jan. 2 to report to jail. General Sessions Judge Klyne Lauderback sentenced him to a year in jail and two more on probation.
"Is that what you understood the sentence was going to be?" the judge asked.
"Yeah, I guess," Gray said.
He could have faced up to a year in jail on each charge, along with jail time on more than half a dozen traffic charges, including speeding and multiple counts of driving on a suspended license.
Prosecutors said they agreed to the sentence due to the improved condition of the chickens and to allow Gray to visit his daughter, who suffers from a severe heart condition.
Sullivan County authorities said Gray left the flock of about 30 chickens in a coop on Keenburg Road this summer without food or water in temperatures that topped 90 degrees.
Thirteen chickens died in what animal control officers called the worst case of cruelty to birds they could remember. Authorities said they found the surviving chickens � along with a dog tied outside � starving and desperately thirsty.
"I�m just glad it�s over," Animal Control Officer Aaron West said.
Letters have poured in from across the country from animal rights groups offering homes for the birds and demanding the maximum punishment, prosecutors said.
Gray claimed the chickens died after he got into a property dispute with a neighbor. He accused the woman of aggravated cruelty to animals, saying she showed up drunk and flipped the henhouse over in March.
The judge found no evidence for that charge and dismissed it last month.
Gray said little during his plea Tuesday. At one point, he put his head down on the defense table as the judge sorted through the charges against him.
"We have a lot of cases here," the judge said. "You don�t want a trial?"
"No," Gray said.
Authorities said they don�t know what will happen to the chickens once Gray reports to jail. The county doesn�t plan to seize the birds, and local humane societies don�t have anywhere to put them.
Most of the flock appears to have recovered, West said.
"On the latest checks, they�ve been fine," he said. "He�s cleaned things up out there." | Source: TriCities.Com - Nov 16, 2005 Update posted on Nov 27, 2005 - 7:14PM |
Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
Back to Top References | News Channel 11 | | Volunteer TV |
« TN State Animal Cruelty Map
|