T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Christine Edgar awaits sentence for abandoning animals Friday. She will serve one day in jail for each animal found in her former home.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Christine Edgar will serve 31 days in jail — one day for each dead animal found in her abandoned house.

Edgar of 3641 Ohio 152, Dillonvale, appeared Friday before Belmont County Northern Division Judge Chris Berhalter onn Friday. She had pleaded no contest to abandoning animals and prohibitions concerning companion animals.

The charges stem from a discovery at Edgar’s former home. A cleaning crew sent to work at the house at 70629 Main St., Barton after it was reclaimed by a bank found the remains of numerous cats and rabbits inside. The animals would have been abandoned around 2015.

Julie Larish, humane officer with the humane agency Belmont County Hoof & Paw, said because the remains were skeletal, the causes of death could not definitively be determined and Edgar could not be charged with deliberately abandoning the animals to starvation and dehydration.

Larish testified prior to the sentencing. Belmont County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Gagin questioned her. Larish said her organization had researched court records and found that no one but Edgar had owned the property.

Larish spoke about the scene she found when investigating the house in November 2022.

“A cleaning company called us because the house was taken over,” she said. “They reported that they found containers or cages with a lot of dead rabbits in them.”

She said there were 22 rabbit corpses in the house, eight cat corpses and one dead chicken.

“When we walked in, there was feces everywhere. You could not step without stepping on something,” she said. “We found in one room, the room was lined with rabbit cages, and in those cages we found multiple dead rabbits everywhere. … We found a cat on the couch that had basically laid and died. We found another cat in amongst the feces on the floor. … It was like finding Waldo at that time because it blended in because it was all bones.

“In order to enter the bedroom off of that room to find out if there were any more animals we literally had to cut a hole in the door because the debris had been so far up the door,” she said. “It was like somebody just closed the door and walked away.”

Larish said protective clothing was needed during the inspection.

“You had to wear masks. You could not breathe in there,” she said. “The only thing left on the rabbits was fur and bones. Everything had deteriorated. When you took them out they were stiff, like cardboard, and the feces was very old. That’s what made it difficult to breathe. When you step — there was nowhere to step without stepping on something — when you step, it would go to powder because it had been so old.”

Larish reviewed the timeline, saying Edgar and her boyfriend both bred and showed rabbits, and her boyfriend took all of his rabbits when he moved out.

Larish said she believes Edgar was deeply depressed at the time.

“Often when we investigate situations like this, we find that there’s a traumatic experience that starts something like this,” she said. “My understanding is there was a breakup. I do believe there was also a death in the family.”

Edgar’s defense attorney, Richard Myser, asked the court to consider Edgar’s mental and emotional situation at the time. He added that she has been law– abiding otherwise and there have been no issues with the two dogs at her current residence.

“Ms. Edgar was in a very bad relationship at the time. A relationship that culminated to involving law enforcement,” he said. “Ms. Edgar is and was a huge animal lover.”

Myser said Edgar had taken in a non– breeding rabbit that may have caused health issues with the other rabbits.

“Three of them died one day. The following day Ms. Edgar would come home and five of these rabbits would be dead. The next day she would come home and 10 of the rabbits would be dead,” Myser said. “With all of these things kind of culminating in her life, Ms. Edgar did essentially close the chapter of this point in her life. She made a decision to vacate the residence, to leave and move on. … Ms. Edgar fully appreciates the decisions that she made and the fact that she has to be punished for it and the fact that animals lost their lives due to those choices.”

Prosecution and defense recommended the two charges be merged, since they arose from the same incident. They also recommended community service working with animals with the Hoof & Paw group.

“So that we can watch her, and we can make sure that this isn’t something that’s going to happen again,” Larish said, adding this will lead to a better understanding of how animals rely on humans. “She’s going to see what other people are doing to these animals. … She’s going to see some horrific things coming into my place. We have some really bad cases coming down the pipe, and I think she’s going to see some things that might make her understand better what she did, and not to do it again.”

Berhalter sentenced Edgar to 90 days in jail, all but 41 suspended and 10 of those days spent in community service with Hoof & Paw. She will be on probation for two years and will have no additional animals other than the two dogs. He spoke about the suffering the animals would have undergone.

“Thirty– one animals counted on you to survive. You walked away from 31 animals who I assume every day in that cage kept waiting on you to come back to feed and water them, and you didn’t. They died. They died of dehydration, they died of hunger, waiting for you. I can’t think of a more horrifying scenario,” Berhalter said. “You’re not that person anymore? I don’t know what kind of person you were then, but I can’t imagine anybody but a monster doing that to defenseless animals.”