Two dog trainers from Acton have pleaded no contest for abusing 26 dogs under their care, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.
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Junior Barillas Morales, 28, and Natasha Elena Ahmad, 25, both entered the plea Thursday to one felony count of animal cruelty.
Morales pleaded to two additional felony counts of animal cruelty, one felony count of child abuse and one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty.
Deputy District Attorney Amarilla Blondia said Morales was immediately sentenced to five years in state prison.
Ahmad pleaded no contest to one felony count of animal cruelty. She was sentenced to six months in jail, 45 days community labor, animal neglect classes, five years of probation and was barred from owning or possessing any animals for 10 years.
Related: Acton Animal Cruelty Case Against Real Deal K9s Headed To Trial
The defendants also agreed to make a $10,000 payment toward an undetermined amount of restitution, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The defendants operated a dog training business called Real Deal K9s, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing. Customers of the business allege they paid thousands of dollars and received very sick, thin dogs.
On Feb. 7, 2017three very thin dogs were discovered by neighbors, according to evidence presented during the hearing.
A following investigation uncovered two dead dogs and eight additional dogs in the defendant’s property. One of the live dogs had to have a leg amputated due to an untreated infection, the prosecutor said.
On May 2, 2017, investigators searching the defendants’ home allegedly found a loaded gun in a sofa where the couple’s three children, ages 1, 4, and 7, could find it, the prosecutor said. The home was extremely dirty and a total of 24 dogs were seized during that search, according to court testimony.
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The photo on this article is of a Belgian Malinois which is commonly used for law enforcement and military. It would have been nice for one of the articles about this place to say what breed of dogs they were selling and what they were breeding them for.
That photo is from Real Deal K9s facebook page top banner. The abused dogs did include Malinois dogs. So the picture is accurate.