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YOUNGSTOWN — Rayne Dunmire, 24, of East Boston Avenue, was sentenced Wednesday to six months in jail and five years of probation after she pleaded guilty in November to cruelty to a companion animal.
Her German shepherd was found dead in her South Side home in July. Animal Charity of Ohio Inc. found the dog dead in a closet in the attic of Dunmire’s home.
Authorities said Dunmire left the state for several weeks on vacation, leaving behind the dog and at least one reptile. The reptile was still alive when Animal Charity searched the home with a warrant.
Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum ordered her to own no animals of any kind during the five years of probation. She could have gotten up to one year in prison on the low-level felony offense.
Michael Rich, county assistant prosecutor, said Animal Charity discovered the dead dog when it was called to Dunmire’s home and “could smell immediately when they got to the residence decay” from the German shepherd’s body.
It was “90-plus degrees” at the time, “so you can imagine how hot it was in that attic,” Rich said.
Authorities checked with individuals Dunmire said were going to watch the dog in her absence, but “none of that seemed to be true,” Rich said. The entire time she was gone, she made no contact with anyone in Youngstown, he said.
Before its death, the dog was “very healthy,” Rich said.
Dunmire’s attorney, Michael Kivlighan, told the judge Dunmire is a single mother of children ages 6, 4 and 2 who works in a fast food restaurant. Dunmire made arrangements with her aunt to watch her kids. She thought her cousin would take care of her animals, Kivlinghan said.
“She thought she had left this animal in good hands,” Kivlighan said of the dog. “She trusted them because they cared for her children also.”
Dunmire told the judge: “I am here taking full responsibility for the actions that have happened. I do suffer daily because I loved my dog.”
She said she thought her children’s family “was going to help me. I honestly believed they were going to help me. They told me I was going to have a great time, that I deserved to go out on this vacation and that I should have fun and I had nothing to worry about.”
She told the judge, “My kids loved that dog. He was their best friend,” adding, “I will suffer this the rest of my life, no matter what decision you make here today.”
Before sentencing Dunmire to jail, the judge told her that the dog’s death is “something that could have been avoided with you making a few phone calls while you were out there on this romantic getaway of yours and just forgetting about everything going on here you are responsible for.”
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