One Animal Neglect Case Resolved

Not one that I've been following and you can hardly call it resolved by any means...

Deaver woman gets probation, fines for animal cruelty charges

The crime? Starving over three dozen horses and excessively whipping another at a rodeo on July 1st.

The punishment? About $3,000 in fines, five years of probation (during which time she cannot own livestock), and five days in jail (already served). If it's unsupervised probation, how do they know she's not owning livestock?

Thirty-nine horses were taken from her property in February. Thirty-nine! They had no food and one of them collapsed while being examined and had to be euthanized. Ten were reclaimed by their Billings owner and the other 28 were adopted out to local homes. The restitution that she is paying will be put towards the vet and food bills incurred by the county in caring for the horses.

As for excessively whipping the horse at the rodeo, she only received a warning from the rodeo producer that "she would no longer be allowed around the rodeo arena."

A jury trial for Stephanie Francis had been scheduled for Oct. 15 — the same day Michael Francis is slated to be tried on his 39 charges.

I'll have to keep an eye on this one. You starve a child and there's an uproar. You starve 39 horses and get a slap on the wrist.