animal rights

About 70 people and a half-dozen service dogs squeezed into a downtown courtroom Tuesday to support a Carrboro dog trainer charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty.

Debra Cunningham, the program director at Eyes Ears Nose and Paws, entered an Alford plea in Orange County District Court. An Alford plea lets someone accept punishment without admitting guilt. Her case was continued to May 20.
If Cunningham fulfills the terms of a deal with the District Attorney’s Office – 100 hours of community volunteer work and continuing to train dogs under supervision – she could receive a prayer for judgment, avoiding conviction and a criminal record.
Stopping often to force back tears, Cunningham spoke for 10 minutes about her terrible mistake and what the golden retriever named Worthy meant to her.
“I will never forget cradling him in my arms. This was a puppy that I had woken up with that morning. He had walked with me, tugging his leash,” she said. “This was a puppy, I had cleaned off his muddy paws when I would come inside, and now he was limp in my arms.”
Carrboro police charged Cunningham last summer after she left the 2-year-old dog in her car for two hours on June 10. When she returned to the car, Worthy was unconscious and panting, according to records and EENP. He died the next day from hyperthermia, or elevated body temperature.
Defense attorney Bill Massengale said the temperature that day reached 70 degrees.
Cunningham has been under supervision at work and forbidden from traveling with dogs since she was charged. EENP secretary and board member Gretchen Aylsworth and Julie Jenkins, training manager with the animal welfare group Paws4ever, will choose a new person to supervise her.
If the case had gone to trial, Assistant District Attorney Jason Murphy said, prosecutors would have had to convince a jury that Cunningham willingly or knowingly exposed Worthy to harm. Instead, she will share her story with others to show how the simplest acts can cause unintended harm, he said.
Charlene Hayes, the “puppy parent” who raised Worthy, and his breeder were in court but declined to speak.