CULPEPER -- A Culpeper man and woman each must pay $1,625 in fines after county authorities removed 13 dogs from substandard conditions at their home last month.
 
James M. Jackson, 25 and Amanda B. Melendez, 30, were arrested March 20 and charged with 84 misdemeanor animal cruelty, care and licensing offenses after animal control officers found more than a dozen dogs and other animals in their vacant rental home on March 14.
 
General District Judge Roger Morton yesterday found Jackson and Melendez guilty of 13 charges each of failure to provide adequate, properly cleaned shelter, rabies vaccination violations and dog-license violations. Morton dismissed the more serious animal-cruelty charges, which carried a possible sentence of one year in jail, a fine of $2,500 or both.
 
Melendez testified that the home was vacant because they were moving and did not have another place to keep the dogs. She also testified that she checked on the animals daily and had been at the house the day before.

Morton cited photos of the house that showed filthy conditions.
 
"It's not plausible to me that this all occurred in a 24-hour period," he said.

The home's owner said she went to check on her property and noticed several pit bulls inside the home when she looked in the window, and that she noticed a fecal odor coming from the home and called Animal Control.

"There were feces throughout the area and the dogs were licking the condensation off the windows," Culpeper Animal Control Officer Kim Seibert told the court. Officers removed seven adult pit bulls, six puppies, an iguana and a parakeet. One of the puppies died several days later.
 
Jackson, who did not testify, insisted the dogs were treated well.

"The dogs stayed taken care of - they were like my kids," he said.
 
Seibert said the some of the dogs had mange when they were removed but have since recovered.

-- Media General News Service