A Cherokee County man was sentenced to two years in prison after he was convicted on animal cruelty charges for abandoning his dog, causing her to starve to death, officials said.
Randall Keith Lathem, 55, of Canton, was found guilty of one count of aggravated cruelty to animals by a jury Dec. 10, Cherokee District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Cyndi Crossland said in a news release. The charges were based on a 2017 incident in which Lathem’s dog was found dead at a home he vacated without telling anyone.
Lathem was given a five-year sentence Jan. 24, with two years to be served in prison and the remaining three on probation, Crossland said. According to the DA’s Office, Lathem was unrepentant during the trial and never admitted guilt.
“This defendant blamed everyone but himself for his actions. Initially, he blamed his brother. Later, he claimed he gave the dog to someone he met in a grocery store,” the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Rachel Clark, said. “The fact is he refuses to accept responsibility and simply makes excuses for putting his own pet in a situation where she suffered untold pain until she died, alone and uncared for.”
The 2½-year-old dog was discovered in November 2017 when Lathem’s family asked him to move out of a relative’s home in order to sell the property, Crossland said. Cherokee sheriff’s deputies went with Lathem’s brother to the house to execute a writ of possession.
When they entered the home, they found the dog’s body surrounded by piles of feces, Crossland said. Lathem had left the house sometime earlier without telling anyone in his family, trapping the dog inside with no food or water. A necropsy conducted on the dog at the University of Georgia’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories found that she likely died of starvation.
Once Lathem is released from prison, the terms of his probation will include not being able to possess guns, alcohol or any illegal substances. He will also be required to avoid contact with his brother and complete a mental health evaluation. He will not be allowed to have a pet of any kind.
“This defendant has never admitted his guilt, so we have no way to determine how long this little dog suffered before she died, hungry, thirsty, and probably very scared,” District Attorney Shannon Wallace said. “Pets are not objects to be left behind and forgotten. They rely on human companions to care for them and provide the basic necessities of life.”
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