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Woman Pleads Guilty to Mistreatment of Horses
A Galesburg woman has admitted to mistreating her farm of horses so much that two of them died, but won't be spending any time in prison because of it.

52-year old Sara Feighner pleaded guilty in Knox County Circuit Court Tuesday to a single misdemeanor charge of Cruelty to Animals. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to drop another misdemeanor cruelty charge, along with a felony charge of Aggravated Cruel Treatment of Animals.

Feighner was arrested in late-March after, authorities say, people called police after discovering that two horses had died on her Moshier Hill Road farm -- one appeared to be caught under a fence. Two more horses, authorities claim, looked underfed.

Feighner claimed to WGIL in an e-mail back in March that the media misreported the case, and that at least one of the horses passed away after a vet inspected it and gave it a steroid shot and some asprin following an illness.

The Hoofed Animals Humane Society took custody of the two alive horses. Judge James Stewart Tuesday afternoon ruled they must remain in the society's care, that Feighner can't own any more horses for the one-year she was sentenced to be on conditional discharge, and that she must pay the society one-thousand dollars in restitution.

Prosecutors alleged Feighner couldn't afford to feed the horses. She told Stewart Tuesday she can afford to feed the dogs and cats that remain on her property.
05 09 12 by Newsroom
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