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Women Arrested For Animal Cruelty Surrender Animals And Await Hearing

LONG BEACH (CBS) — The two women accused of cramming 142 animals into a Uhaul and driving it across country with no food or water have been released on bond.

Founders of Long Beach's Hearts for Hounds Bonnie Sheehan and Pamela McCraken were being held at the Fayette County jail after police pulled them over on I-40 for a traffic violation and found the animals in deplorable condition.

Sheehan told CBS2's Stacey Butler that she never planned for the incident to turn out the way it has.

"This wasn't something from out of the blue we decided to do by taking a bunch of dogs and run of in the night," she said.

Sheenan said that no one was adopting dogs, so she put up ads online geared towards the East Coast and began to hear back from numerous interested people shortly after.

The women never made it to their destination because they were pulled over and arrested for keeping the animals in "deplorable condition."

Shehan and McCraken have surrendered all rights to those 142 animals on Jan. 24 in a Somerville courtroom and gave them over to the Fayette County Animal Control Series.

They are each charged with one count of aggravated animal cruelty which is a class e felony. They could face up to two years if convicted. Other charges are still possible.

"That one count is essentially for the transportation of these 141 animals in an inhumane manor which caused death to at least one animal and significant injury to others," said District Attorney General Mike Dunavant.

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