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PAINESVILLE, Ohio, Nov 18, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A judge in Painesville, Ohio, has ordered a woman to spend a winter night in the woods for abandoning 40 kittens in two parks.
Michelle Murray must spend the night with no food, light or shelter as part of the court-imposed sentence, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reports.
Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti said parks rangers will take the 26-year-old woman into the forest at dusk and pick her up at dawn on Thanksgiving Day. Rangers will monitor her to make sure she is safe and does not freeze, the report said.
The weather forecast for the area is for a chance of snow with a low of 23 degrees.
Cicconetti had offered Murray a choice of three months behind bars or one night in the woods followed by 14 days in jail, 15 days of house arrest and three years of probation.
Murray had pleaded guilty last month to a misdemeanor charge of abandoning the animals. Nine of the kittens later died or were euthanized because they couldn't be saved, the report said.
Murray told the newspaper a stranger left the kittens on her doorstep and the local animal shelter refused to help her. The humane society denied it had refused help.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2005 by United Press International
