COLBERT COUNTY, Ala. — New court documents filed this week in a Colbert County circuit court show 41 charges against a woman investigators say left dozens of animals on her property injured, malnourished, and otherwise neglected. Several animals that had died, they added, were left to decay without burial.
A 41-count indictment was filed Friday against Debra Jane Catledge, who was originally arrested in October 2023 on charges of animal neglect. Colbert County Animal Services Director Corey Speegle and his team said they found more than two dozen dead horses on Catledge's property in Cherokee.
Several dogs were pulled from the property by shelter volunteers in varying stages of neglect.
The indictment lists four counts of first-degree cruelty to dogs, 16 counts of second-degree cruelty to dogs; four counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, five counts of failure to bury an animal, and one count of obstructing governmental operations.
The cruelty counts charge that:
- "[Catledge] did in a cruel manner, overload, overdrive, deprive of necessary sustenance or shelter, unnecessarily or cruelly beat, injure, mutilate, or cause the same to be done to a dog,"
- "[Catledge] did intentionally or knowingly subject an animal to cruel mistreatment; and/or subject an animal in her custody to cruel neglect; and the act of cruelty or neglect involved causing the infliction of torture to the [horse],"
- "[Catledge] did recklessly or with criminal negligence subject an animal to cruel mistreatment/neglect,"
- "[Catledge] did fail as owner or custodian of an animal which was killed or was killed in her possession or custody to cause the body of said animal to be burned or buried with 24 hours at least two feet below the surface of the ground."
On the count of obstruction, the indictment alleges that Catledge "knowingly ... obstruct, impair, or hinder the administration of law or prevent a public servant from performing a governmental function."
Catledge was previously ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to Colbert County Animal Services for the rescue and cleanup efforts.
Her arraignment on the new indictment is scheduled for June 20.
