Farmer loses appeal in cattle starvation case

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld the conviction and prison sentence of a Pennsylvania farmer who was found guilty of allowing more than two dozen beef cattle to starve during the winter of 2012-13.

The court’s decision means 57-year-old Thomas Shawley, of Milesburg, must serve one to three years’ incarceration, plus one year and nine months on probation.

A district judge convicted Shawley in July and a Center County Common Pleas judge convicted Shawley again in October, after he appealed the lower court’s ruling. The Superior Court’s Monday ruling upholds the second conviction and a sentence imposed in December.

State Department of Agriculture officials and those from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals found more than 30 undernourished cattle in a muddy field with no feed available to them.