05/17/2008

Associated Press

The owner of a Hillsville dog-breeding operation from which authorities seized hundreds of dogs was found guilty of animal cruelty and neglect charges.

Lanzie Horton Jr., known as Junior, received a 12-year jail sentence that was suspended by General District Court Judge Edward Turner.

The judge also suspended $2,250 of the 14 $2,500 fines for animal cruelty and $450 of the 25 $500 fines for animal neglect. He imposed the mandatory $25 fine for failure to obtain a dog license, and ordered Horton to pay the to-be-determined cost of veterinary services provided for the approximately 700 dogs taken from his property during the sting. Horton also was sentenced to active probation to be shared by New River Valley Corrections and Carroll County Chief Animal Control officer Terry Woods, who testified at the trial.

Horton operated Horton's Pups, where more than 1,000 dogs were discovered in November. He was accused of depriving dogs of food, water, shelter or emergency veterinary treament and failing to adequately house, feed, water, exercise or care for the animals.

"I'm not going to put him out of business yet," Turner said. "I don't think he's a cruel man. I am going to limit his operation to 250 dogs."

The judge also addressed the audience in the court room:

"I know that anything dealing with dogs strikes a deep emotional chord. It does with me," he said.

"This man is going to be carefully supervised."

Horton said he plans to appeal.

In his testimony, Horton said he had a lot of money invested in the operation and contended that he took care of the puppies. He agreed, however, that he did have an excessive number of dogs.

"I knew I had too many dogs," he said. "I could have sold every one of them. I lost thousands of dollars on pups I could have sold at Christmas."