URBANA, Ill. (AP) — A central Illinois man has been sentenced to probation and ordered not to possess any animals one year after officials seized more than 80 dogs living in deplorable conditions inside his home.
A Champaign County judge sentenced 61-year-old Mark Richards of Champaign to one year of probation Wednesday.
The News-Gazette reports that’s the same sentence the judge imposed in August on Richards’ 55-year-old wife, Wendy Richards. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor failure to provide humane care and treatment of animals.
In October 2019, officials discovered 84 dogs, many of them pregnant, in the Champaign couple’s home, which was filled with layers of feces.
