The Mount Vernon municipal prosecutor has filed seven animal cruelty and neglect charges against the owner of an animal rescue operation.
24-year-old Kristin Beaupry of Pittie Paw Rescue is accused of failing to provide medical care for five dogs and proper food and living conditions for another dozen canines. Her shop housed 67 dogs in a dilapidated former cabinet-making shop in Knox County. Last August the Centerberg woman and her mother, Joyce Meisenhelder, were arraigned on 24 counts of animal cruelty and one count of animal abandonment. They pleaded not guilty to charges of abandoning 23 cats in a Licking County trailer. Trial begins in late november. Mount Vernon authorities say Meisenhelder and the dogs lived in a house next to the trailer until she was evicted, then brought them to Knox County.