North Carolina grand jury indicts 4 former animal lab workers on felony animal cruelty charges

RALEIGH, N.C. - Four former workers at a North Carolina testing lab have been indicted on felony animal cruelty charges, following an animal rights group's undercover investigation that captured video images of animals being hit, kicked as well as thrown, officials pronounced Wednesday.Gates County District Attorney Frank Parrish pronounced Christine Clement as well as Tracy Small were indicted on dual counts each of cruelty to animals, while Jessica Detty as well as Mary Ramsey were each indicted on five counts of a same charge. Parrish pronounced a grand jury handed down a indictments Tuesday.In North Carolina, a sentence for a chairman with no prior criminal record could range from as small as three months of community use to 14 months in prison.The charges follow a September 2010 release of a videotape provided by an undercover worker for a group People for a Ethical Treatment of Animals.Detty pronounced Wednesday that she was not aware of a indictment, nor had she heard from a other three defendants in a case. She told The Associated Press that she wouldn't mistreat animals."Wow. we don't see myself as a type of chairman to ever do something like that as well as we would not ever," pronounced Detty, who pronounced she was a receptionist at a lab for a year as well as a half. "If we were to go to court, we would surely have a counsel to defend me that we was not in a wrong," Detty said.Messages left for a other three workers were not immediately returned Wednesday.PETA lab investigator Kathy Guillermo called it a groundbreaking case for animal rights.She pronounced it is a first case she is aware of in which research lab workers have been charged with animal cruelty."There are unspeakable things happening to animals in labs every day, though when you also strike them, kick them or withhold health care, it's animal cruelty,' Guillermo said.The video shot by a PETA member working at a lab shows workers throwing a cat, pulling a dog's teeth with unsound pain medication as well as trying to pull a! cat's c laws off by jerking it from a wire cage.Professional Laboratory as well as Research Services Inc. was closed in late 2010 after a USDA received PETA's report as well as began to investigate a operation.Guillermo pronounced a lab was not dependent with any specific company though would carry out testing for manufacturers of pet products, such as flea as well as tick medications.More than 200 dogs as well as 50 cats were confiscated from a lab by a USDA following a investigation.The lab's owner, Helen Sonenshine, of Virginia, did not return a call from a reporter Wednesday.Connie Detty, a mother of Jessica Detty, pronounced her daughter was an animal lover who often brought rabbits home from a lab to keep them from being euthanized.Gates County is on a North Carolina-Virginia line, about 114 miles northeast of Raleigh.__Associated Press writer Emery Dalesio contributed to this report.