A trial is scheduled to begin April 5, 2006 in Ashland Municipal Court for a New Washington woman officials say kept dozens of animals -- some of them from Richland County -- in less than acceptable conditions in locations around Ashland County. The Ashland Law Director's office filed a first-degree misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals against Brenda Studer, 47, of 414 Jeffrey Road, last fall, following an investigation by Ashland County Humane Society investigator William Buchanan.
The complaint alleges that Studer deprived several animals, specifically cats and dogs, of sustenance or impounded or confined the animals without sufficient quantities of food and water.
According to assistant prosecutor David Hunter, the alleged cruelty happened last year, between June and September. Hunter declined to say how many animals were involved and where they were found because the case is pending. Humane Society president Brenda Kauffman said the organization received reports from a number of people about the way Studer was keeping animals. An investigation turned up more than 70, mostly dogs and a large colony of cats, at three Amish farms west of Ashland. Many of the animals had health problems, according to Kauffman, although none were "extreme." "He (Buchanan) found very filthy conditions and the environment was poor," she said.
Kauffman said officials believe Studer was renting the facilities and emphasized the farms were "pretty clean" and that a number of complaints came from Amish. She said the society is caring for most of the animals on the farms where they were found. Some were taken into foster care. Others, through a program at the Mansfield Correctional Institution, are working with inmates to ready them for adoption. Kauffman said the organization received complaints about Studer two other times but was unable to "catch up" with her.
In 1997, Studer was convicted of animal cruelty and failure to license a dog in Norwalk Municipal Court. The charges were the result of an investigation by Monroeville police, who found 35 dogs and 40 cats in a former Humane Society building in Monroeville.
Studer also was convicted in Crawford County in 1997 for having unlicensed dogs and charged in 1998 in Seneca County with 14 counts of cruelty to animals for allegedly neglecting more than 150 dogs and cats left at a Seneca County farm and for allegedly threatening an investigator in the case. Studer told deputies she rescued the animals.
A Crawford County Humane Society official called her a "collector." Studer's attorney in the current case, John Good of Ashland, said it was "not appropriate" for him to comment on the case before trial. Studer faces a maximum six-months in jail, a $1,000 fine and the loss of the animals. Hunter said Studer was not charged under a section of Ohio law that would have allowed a stiffer sentence for someone with a previous animal cruelty conviction.
Richland County Dog Warden Dave Jordan and Lenny Presinger of the Richland County Dog Shelter and Adoption Center have been subpoenaed to testify. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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