Woman Who Dumped Puppies in Dumpster Learns Fate

Deborah Sue Culwell will spend a year in jail
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2019 8:53 AM CDT
Woman Who Dumped Puppies in Dumpster Learns Fate
This Friday, April 19, 2019, photo from surveillance video shows a woman, later identified by authorities as Deborah Sue Culwell, dumping a plastic bag of puppies into a trash bin behind an auto parts store in Coachella, Calif.   (Riverside County Animal Services via AP)

The charmer who opted to drop seven newborn puppies in a steamy Dumpster instead of at her local animal shelter will spend a year in her local criminal shelter, aka county jail. Deborah Sue Culwell, 54, pleaded guilty to seven counts each of animal cruelty and animal abandonment after she was caught on video in April tossing a plastic bagful of puppies into a garbage bin in Coachella, Calif. Culwell had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, and had faced up to seven years in jail. She'll spend the last 90 days of her sentence on work release and is forbidden from owning animals for the seven years she'll spend on probation. A man rummaging through the Dumpster moments after Culwell left spotted the puppies and saved them. (More animal abuse stories.)

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