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LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania district attorney has gotten a local animal cruelty agency to no longer enforce animal abuse cases after the prosecutor contended the agency's head mishandled a case involving a severely malnourished puppy.
Susan Martin, the executive director of the Lancaster County SPCA says she agrees with the move. She says it costs the agency too much money to prosecute abuse cases, because the victimized animals must be cared for and stored.
Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman says Martin enforced animal cruelty laws in a "substandard" fashion, and erred by not prosecuting the breeder of a malnourished Boston terrier puppy rescued last month. State police have since charged the breeder, after Martin said she didn't have enough evidence to do so.
Stedman is creating a new program to train humane society officers.
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