Campbell was facing 19 animal cruelty charges, but all of them were “aggregated into one” and a rather reluctant Bowers allowed a plea deal that would only have the defendant paying a reduced restitution of $1,020 at $100 a month and perform 40 hours of community service at the animal shelter.

Campbell was originally charged pursuant to an affidavit of complaint filed by Carter County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Issac Rhea with 20 counts of animal cruelty. The sworn affidavit says, “Upon arrival [at the defendant’s residence], I observed approximately 20 dogs all in the open without any shade and the temperature was 90 degrees. Some of the dogs had no water and the few that did it was green and stagnated and none of the dogs had any food. I observed a female dog with five puppies in a pen with no food and water. The female dog was very skinny with ribs and hipbones showing through the skins. The puppies tried several times to latch on to the mother dog but was unable to get any milk. I had animal control to remove the female and puppies from the property.”

The affidavit confirms that Rhea also reached out to Shannon Posada, director of the county animal shelter, who arrived on the site and began evaluating all of the dogs and the decision was made to remove the remaining dogs. After Posada advised Rhea that two of the puppies had died and that dogs had been seen by a veterinarian and were discovered to have been malnourished and had parasites, this was when Campbell was charged with 20 counts originally of animal cruelty and subsequently arrested and remained in jail under a $25,000 bond until Tuesday.

Posada was clearly not happy with the result as many expressed disbelief in the courtroom and out.

“They reduced our restitution from $4,300 to $1,020,” Posada said. “We take all animal cruelty cases seriously and will pursue such.”

Posada also wanted to thank all of the people who helped with these animals and the communities that contribute and help.