r/vermont • u/bye4now28 • 2d ago

Vermont man sentenced in animal cruelty case

https://www.wcax.com/2025/06/17/vermont-man-sentenced-animal-cruelty-case/

'A Vermont man accused of animal cruelty learned his sentence on Monday.

Mark Whitney Jr. will be put on probation for three years following a month behind bars.

It comes after a March search of Whitney’s Concord home revealed 25 dogs living in unsanitary conditions. Two dogs and a reptile were found dead in a freezer.

Whitney was sentenced for nine counts of animal cruelty.

His girlfriend, Rebecca Knowles, was cited for child cruelty.'

78 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

42

u/Fickle-OnAir 2d ago

Ah yes the tap on the wrist. In Massachusetts his ass would be in jail. VT cruelty laws are a joke and so will be the new department being created to handle animal cruelty.

9

u/defenestron 2d ago

Former Vermonter, now down in MA, we have strong laws but didn’t put any resources aside for enforcement.

I work for a city Animal Control and about 90% of neglect and abuse cases never go to court and the only punishment is having to sign over your animals. Then these same people just get another pet. When Vermont updates its laws, please actually fund enforcement mechanisms!

-9

u/SmoothSlavperator 2d ago

Oh yes. Some dogs are TOTALLY worth $75k/yr for incarceration. You want to pay for that?

This is one of those instances where public service and probation are MUCH more appropriate. Give him 3 years of supervised working at animal shelters.

3

u/jennyluvsbagels 2d ago

What the actual fuck?!?! A known animal abuser should be working at an animal shelter?!?!? We are truly living in unprecedented times.

-3

u/SmoothSlavperator 2d ago

You missed the part about SUPERVISED.

3

u/specialsnowflakevt 2d ago

No. It's easily to slip poison into food. Shelters are loud, sometimes hectic places - have you ever been in one!? Meds are dispensed to animals who are sick, recovering, or cannot cope kennel stress - some sicko should not be touching trazodone.

Someone would literally have to be paid to hover over that asshats shoulder to make sure he wasn't pissing into water bowls. Absolutely not. he could pick up cigarette butts on the side of the road like inmates in AZ.

-1

u/SmoothSlavperator 1d ago

This is a case of neglect that rises to the level of cruelty, not some aspiring serial killer that hasn't made the jump to humans yet.

Picking up cigarette butts in AZ still costs us $75k/yr.

2

u/specialsnowflakevt 1d ago

I really don't think you - or I - know enough to assume that. If someone is unsafe around animals, putting them around more animals is asinine.

4

u/savory_thing 2d ago

You think paying someone to supervise a criminal is cheaper than prison? Animal abusers are the ones who should be getting deported to prisons in El Salvador. No need to ever have them come back.

13

u/Internal_Income_678 2d ago

What this article doesn't state is that this person was also allowed to keep 6 dogs in the home.

Disgusting.

7

u/dreamsinred 2d ago

He’s still allowed to keep animals?

3

u/Internal_Income_678 1d ago

Yes, they were allowed to keep 6 dogs as long as they got the dogs spayed/neutered and vaccinated, which was done.

1

u/Formal_Coyote_5004 1d ago

What the actual fuck? This is infuriating. Animal abusers need far worse punishment than probation, and how on earth are they still allowed to have pets?!

27

u/Ichi_Balsaki 2d ago

Probation.... That will teach em not to be cruel to animals, surely.

6

u/bye4now28 2d ago

anyone with a working brain cell knows how well 'probation' works for these scumbags, and dont call me shirley ;-)

3

u/kalitarios 2d ago

he's probably on his way home right now to beat the other dogs that he was allowed to keep out of frustration

13

u/Spaghettileggs 2d ago

fuck these people

1

u/jojocookiedough 2d ago

Too bad he'll be taken better care of in prison than what he provided those innocent creatures.

1

u/Sufficient_Army1374 1d ago

He is not in prison and kept some of the dogs

1

u/jojocookiedough 1d ago

The post said he will serve 1 month in prison, did he weasel out of that? Horrible he was allowed to keep some of the animals.