A woman who left seven three-week-old puppies trapped in a plastic tote in 95 degree heat this summer near a Georgia highway has been sentenced to prison after confessing to the crime, prosecutors said.
The puppies died and Amber Kay Higdon, 31, pleaded guilty last week to seven counts of aggravated cruelty to animals in connection to the felony crime, Cherokee County District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway announced Thursday.
The city is just under 40 miles northwest of Atlanta.
Higdon left the puppies on the side or a road near Marietta Highway on July 27, a day when temperatures reached a high of 95 degrees, prosecutors said in a released statement. She left the vulnerable animals with no food, water, or shelter and the puppies were too small to climb out of the tote, an investigation found.
“Animals rely on us as humans for all their needs, and the defendant discarded these puppies on the side of the road as if they were trash,” Assistant District Attorney Rachel Murphy, who prosecuted the case, released in a statement. “The defendant’s action led to an extremely painful death for seven innocent puppies, which no living being deserves to endure.”