Woman says ill dog was owned by son
Stands trial for animal cruelty
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
MONMOUTH - Brenda Stokes stood trial Tuesday in Warren County Circuit Court for cruel treatment of a dog, a white boxer named Casper.According to her attorney Thomas Siegel, while she admits the dog was clearly malnourished and had an injury to its head when Monmouth police discovered the dog May 16, 2006, Stokes was taking care of the dog. Siegel argued that the dog was actually owned by Stokes' son, Jay.
The defense said it would prove that while the dog was thin and had a wound on its head, that the dog was very thin when Jay Stokes was first given the dog by Bob Tally.
Jay Stokes was the first person to be charged for cruel treatment of animals in the case involving the boxer. However, according to state prosecutor Charles Zalar, Brenda Stokes approached Warren County State's Attorney Chip Algren and said she was the owner of the dog.
Siegel claims that Brenda had no such conversation, and that her son Jay is in fact the owner of the dog, and that she is not guilty.
The boxer was found at Stokes' home while no one was home, and at the time weighed 41 pounds. Veterinarian Dr. Geoffrey Weech testified that a dog Casper's size should weigh 51 to 55 pounds. Weech said that the amount of weight lost was large enough that it would have taken weeks to months to restore Casper to a healthy weight.
When Robbin Sage, public service officer for the Monmouth Police Department, took Casper to her department, she said the malnourished dog could not eat and drink fast enough.
"We started off by giving him small bits and he proceeded to wolf it down," Sage said.
While Weech said he could not be sure what caused the malnourishment of the boxer, he said it was possible that bacteria or worms could have influenced the dog's weight.
Weech, who observed the boxer when it was first discovered at the Stokes home, also said the wound on the boxer's head would have been at least a week old due to the area of dead tissue surrounding the wound.
When asked if the wound on the dog's head could have been caused by a bush, Weech said he did not think that was the cause, but that a burn, abrasion or bacteria could have been the cause.
Siegel claimed that Jay Stokes had cleaned the wound after he noticed it on the dog's head, but Weech said he saw no evidence that the wound had been treated.
Casper was placed under adoption soon after the incident.
