Andrea Rosebrock 
Junior Horton, owner of Horton’s Pups, faced 14 counts of animal cruelty and 25 counts of neglect stemming from an investigation from last November when more than 1000 dogs were found at his property. The charges accused Horton of depriving dogs of necessary food, drink, shelter or emergency veterinary treatment, and of failing to adequately house, feed, water, exercise or care for animals in his possession. He was also charged with one count of not having a proper license. Over 700 dogs were eventually seized and adopted into new homes.
The good news is that he was found guilty of all the charges. The bad news, on the other hand, is that he will not be facing any jail time and most of the fines were actually suspended and worst of all, he is allowed to continue to run his commercial breeding business, ie. puppy mill!! More ’slap on the wrist’ justice!!
After more than three hours of testimony, General District Court Judge Edward Turner made his ruling on the 40 charges Horton faced: 14 for animal cruelty, 25 for animal neglect and one for failure to obtain a dog license.
“I find Mr. Horton guilty of all counts,” Turner said. “The question is, ‘What do we do with it?’ “
Turner suspended 12 years of jail time for the misdemeanors and suspended much of the fines associated with the criminal charges. For the 14 counts of cruelty, he suspended $2,250 of each of the $2,500 fines. For the 25 counts of neglect, he suspended $450 of each of the $500 fines. He imposed the mandated $25 fine for the charge of failing to obtain a dog license. The total for all fines amounted to $4,750. The judge also directed the court to determine a cost of veterinary services provided when hundreds of Horton’s dogs were taken from his business following the sting. He said Horton will be responsible for making restitution.
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.
“I’m not going to put him out of business yet,” Turner said after making his ruling. “I don’t think he’s a cruel man. I am going to limit his operation to 250 dogs.
“This man is going to be carefully supervised,” the judge noted after making some comments to the audience in which he said “I know that anything dealing with dogs strikes a deep emotional chord. It does with me.” (The Roanoke Times)
After all the pleas, the demonstrations, petitions and obvious disregard for the law, this man is going to be able to continue to reap profits off the bodies of used, abused and neglects dogs.
Even after hundreds of dogs were seized in November, he was still running his puppy mill and the conditions hadn’t changed, what makes the judge or anyone else think that he’s going to change now??
An of course his lawyer is going to appeal the conviction. Horton said he had invested a lot of money in his dogs and that he took care of them. He did admit, however, that he had 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.”
Horton’s case brought national attention to the problem of puppy mills in Virginia, which led to passage of legislation to crack down on the industry. House Bill 538 was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in March, putting stiffer regulations on commercial dog breeders across the state.
The new law requires that those in the business breed only female dogs between the ages of 18 months and 8 years and have licensed veterinarians certify each year that the dogs are in suitable breeding health. It also stipulates that breeders maintain records of animal sales, purchases, breeding history and veterinary care and that no more than 50 adult dogs be kept at one time unless approved by a local ordinance after a public hearing.
I admit, I didn’t except them to shut him down but I did expect something more than what he got. All these POSs care about is lining their pockets, even if no jail time, a fine of less than 5k doesn’t send much of a message. Just imagine how much this guy rakes in!! He’s whining about losing dogs, he should have thought about that before hand. He got off way too lightly!
Something is wrong with that judge….maybe he should go live with the dogs and see what its really like since he seems to think this is ok…this world is really jacked up….people who are suppose to protect us and care don’t!!! Shame on them…..
Ah like I once said…buy a sponge, add water, and *poof* you get a judge.
This is a beautiful website and god bless you for all you’re doing to keep us in touch with those BARBARIANS who only use animals for their own selfish means!
What can we do to stop the PUPPY MILLS? Something has to be and soon.
I belong to many pet organizations and although some bills are goin to passed by Congress, I feel,
as you’ve mentioned: “BREEDERS GET OFF TOO LIGHTLY!”
This judge needs to be swamped with leters of oooutrage. How dare him allow this pupy miller to continue in the business of having dogs ive in misery and cruelty! To suspend his sentence was just unbelievable coming from a so-called qualified judge. I hope everyone that reads about this will write for the 250 dogs he still is allowed to keep in horrid conditons and use over and over in cages just to breed for his GREED.
Unbelievable!!The judge has basically said what he is doing is O.K.!!!Just keep on milling!!And then to have the audacity to say”strikes a deep, emotional chord”…BULL!!That chord seems to be muted if you ask me!!
What is this judge thinking or is he even thinking at all? This sentence is a cruel joke to a cruel pupy muill breeder. I feel that judge needs to be writen letters teling him exactly what you think of him. I do not think he is wqualified to even sit oon the ench and makecisons. Now he only has 250 dogs to lie in misery instead of 2599. I never thought I would see a judge that would possibly make such a horrible decision in sentencing for a horible act of inhumanity and noncaring. That is exactly what he is promoting with his power of authority. That guy must be laughing all the way to the bank.Those poor dogs that still live in misery.
This article said:
“an investigation from last November when more than 1000 dogs were found at his property….. Over 700 dogs were eventually seized and adopted into new homes.”
Ok that leaves 300 dogs in my calculations. So onto the next part:
“I’m not going to put him out of business yet,” Turner said after making his ruling. “I don’t think he’s a cruel man. I am going to limit his operation to 250 dogs.”
I guess that judge can’t do the math huh?
“This man is going to be carefully supervised,” the judge noted after making some comments to the audience in which he said “I know that anything dealing with dogs strikes a deep emotional chord. It does with me.”
REALLY? By whom?
“Even after hundreds of dogs were seized in November, he was still running his puppy mill and the conditions hadn’t changed, what makes the judge or anyone else think that he’s going to change now??”
What’s worse is not only was he running this business as of Nov. he was also at the Dec. Buckeye auction inn OH and buying more dogs. Why were there no enforcements made on how many he could actually have and then follow up on it? Bet his attorney knows how many he has.
I so hate people somedays.