VIERA -- A woman who plead guilty to leaving her dog to starve to death has been sentenced to eight months behind bars on animal cruelty charges.
Christine Abrams, 30, moved out of her Cocoa home and left her German Shepherd, Ella, in a cage without food or water in March.
Abrams reportedly decided to plead guilty in October after a judge denied her motion seeking to throw out key evidence.
Because of the guilty plea, Abrams did not go to trial. Instead, she entered a plea to the court, which meant the judge had total discretion over the sentence.
The judge also ordered Abrams to pay a $5,000 fine.
The case has drawn huge protests. Many protesters said the punishment was not enough.
“When someone does something like this, she blatantly locked an animal in a cage and moved away for six weeks. And if you saw the pictures, you can see that dog was dying. The last thing it did was reach through the cage and try to get the food,” said Theresa Clifton.
Abrams's attorney is appealing the sentence. He said Abrams is remorseful and shouldn't get jail time.
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