Ogden man to serve 5 years on drug charge and puppy deaths

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Monday, July 7, 2008

OGDEN — The man who pleaded guilty to dumping 14 puppies, killing all but one, is prison-bound on animal-cruelty and drug charges.

Michael Ray Howard, 35, was sentenced to one year in the county jail on each of 13 aggravated animal cruelty charges Monday by 2nd District Judge Roger Dutson, the maximum for each of the class A misdemeanor counts.

He was also given six months in jail, again the maximum, on a class B misdemeanor animal cruelty charge relating to the puppy that survived.

Now fully grown, named Precious, she was raised by Rita Woodward, who found the puppies wrapped in a sheet and a plastic bag in a trash container Dec. 9 in Riverdale.
Howard was also sentenced to up to five years in prison for possession of methamphetamine following a drug bust a month after the puppy case hit the news.
The judge ordered all the sentences to run concurrently at the prison.

Howard’s defense attorney said his client’s decision to dump the 3- to 5-week-old puppies was part of his “methamphetamine haze” from years of addiction, noting Howard was now clean after more than 100 days in jail.

“Mr. Howard,” the judge said, “I imagine you’re thinking more clearly today than you have in a long time and you can see just how heinous it is what you did to these little living animals. ...

“They’re not human but often they function and treat others better than humans.” 

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