Woman Charged With Animal Cruelty
A Palmdale woman was charged Tuesday with animal cruelty after more than a dozen severely malnourished dogs and cats were found in her feces-strewn home.
The district attorney’s office charged Halle Hammond, 39, with one felony and nine misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.
Last week, county animal control officers found eight cats, eight dogs and one dead dog in Hammond’s home in the 38900 block of 162nd Street East. Every room in the house was littered with feces and mounds of trash, officials said.
The animals, which were locked in the house, apparently tried to escape by clawing at the windows and doors. Animal control officers inspected the house after receiving a complaint from a neighbor.
Hammond, a dispatcher with the California Highway Patrol, has not been arrested.
The charges against her were filed in a complaint for an arrest warrant, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
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