WAUKEGAN: Late September 8, after two days of testimony at Lake County Circuit Court in Illinois, USA, Diane Eldrup has been found guilty by the jury of 18 counts of animal torture, 18 counts of aggravated animal cruelty, and 18 counts of cruelty to animals. The trial opened on Wednesday with a gruesome video that portrayed evidence of animal cruelty at Muddy Paws animal shelter – 14 dead dogs were found among moldy feces, locked in kennel cages. Eldrup was accused of starving the dogs to death – with the video showing a number of 50-pound bags and unopened cans of dog food at the facility. Winthrop Harbor veterinarian Dr. Ned Bartlett's testimony on Thursday revealed that the dogs sent to him for examination had died. They were severely underweight and had no contents in their intestines, food or feces. According to Dr. Bartlett, the dogs were suffering from cachexia, a state in which they were losing muscle mass, fat tissue, shrinkage of organs, and the wasting away of body mass, a condition that is the result of a minimum of two months of starvation. “They had no food, no water; the defendant starved the dogs,” stated Raquel Robles-Eschbach, co-prosecutor. “She placed two dogs in airplane crates, with no food, no water, stacked like logs of wood in a closet and shut the door.” Currently free on bail, Eldrup is scheduled to return to court on October 18 for her sentence. She may possibly face 8 years of imprisonment as the animal torture charge, a Class 3 felony, carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and aggravated animal cruelty, a Class 4 felony, carries a sentence of up to three years in prison. BM
