A March 2021 arrest of a Clay couple for multiple counts of animal cruelty has found its way to the trial stage in Webster District Court.
Tyler Morgan and Christina Morgan appeared Tuesday for a pretrial conference in a case in which each defendant faces 25 counts of second-degree animal cruelty.
According to Webster County Animal Control Officer Aaron Richmond, the initial call in the case concerned the condition of one dog and a pot-bellied pig. Richmond described the dog as being in “poor” condition, and the pig as not having the weight expected for its size.
“We eventually noticed there was one dead dog in the same area,” Richmond said.
Webster County Sheriff Donald “Bubba” Jones was called in to help with the case, at which point more animals were found.
“There were chickens, some quail, and some rabbits,” Richmond said.
Some of the chickens were dead, and many of the remaining animals were malnourished. Richmond said they were simply not being fed.
The two worst things found, Richmond said, were two dogs in a building that had completely decomposed with nothing but bones and hair remaining. He added that they had likely died sometime in the fall of 2020.
“They had starved to death,” he said. “I just don’t have any other way to say it. They had just laid there and starved to death.”
Second-degree cruelty to animals is a Class A misdemeanor, which in Kentucky could result in incarceration between 90 days and 12 months per count.
According to the text of KRS 525.130, if found guilty, the couple could be made to pay any bills resulting from the care of the animals that survived.