Woman gets 1 year probation for abandoning 2 dogs to die

PEKIN, Ill. (AP) - A Tazewell County woman has been sentenced to a year's probation for leaving two dogs to die without food or water.

The Pekin Daily Times reports (http://bit.ly/1LGpPwF ) that Regina Robards also must pay more than $1,000 in court costs. She could have faced three years in prison for her conviction on two counts of aggravated cruelty to a companion animal.

Circuit Judge Paul Gilfillan said the 43-year-old Robards previously led a law-abiding life in sentencing her to probation and declined to impose a fine because she is "virtually homeless."

Robards left her Pekin rental home in the summer of 2014 and moved in with her landlady, Loretta Joachim. Joachim said she assumed Robards was visiting the home to care for the dogs.

They were discovered badly decomposed in November 2014.

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Information from: Pekin Daily Times, http://www.pekintimes.com