Monroe woman sentenced to year in jail for starving horses

EVERETT — A Monroe woman who starved five horses to death was sentenced to a year in jail for animal cruelty.

The 57-year-old woman, Jean Marie Elledge, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced Monday in Snohomish County Superior Court.

She had been paid to board horses in Monroe and Carnation and dead and starving animals were found earlier this year at both locations.

Elledge was ordered to serve her Snohomish sentence after completing a nine-month animal cruelty sentence in King County for starving horses at Carnation.

King County Animal Control officers went to Elledge's Carnation farm in February and found four dead horses, one emaciated foal and nine other emaciated horses without food or drinkable water.

Animal-control agents said they found no food for the animals at the Carnation property.

Snohomish County authorities also found an additional five horses that had died of starvation at property Elledge owns near Monroe, prompting additional animal-cruelty charges.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report