Plea deals in dog's starvation death
Here is another story of animal cruelty. Reading about these situations makes me sick. If you are going to be mean to your pet, I say you shouldn't have one.
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Plea deals in dog's starvation death
By Hal Dardick
Tribune staff reporter
January 29, 2007, 12:17 PM CST
A Crest Hill man was sentenced to prison and his daughter was given probation today after they admitted in plea deals that they starved their pet dog to death last year.
Mark Obidowicz, 44, pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty, a felony that carried a maximum three-year prison sentence. He was sentenced to one year in prison.
Nicole Obidowicz, 19, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor animal cruelty. She was sentenced to 24 months conditional discharge, a type of probation, during which she cannot own an animal. She also was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
Kira, the family's 1-year-old Siberian husky, weighed 17.3 pounds when it died Oct. 22, a tenth of a pound less than it weighed at four months, when the father and daughter bought the dog, authorities said.
"Both defendants acknowledged that the dog was not given food and water on a regular basis," Assistant State's Atty. Jennifer Chang said. The animal was kept in a cage in the basement of the Obidowicz home, on the 1800 block of Springside Drive.
Animal control officers found the dog buried in a farm field behind the home, authorities said. An animal autopsy determined the dog's death was consistent with one caused by starvation, Chang said.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
