Prosecutors Appeal Sentence for Doty Woman Who Pleaded Guilty to Animal Cruelty

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The 79-year-old Doty woman who pleaded guilty earlier this year to multiple charges of animal cruelty after 65 dogs were seized from her property last October is still allowed to own animals after a Lewis County District Court judge declined to restrict the number of animals she could own.

Nancy Punches was charged with 65 counts of second-degree animal cruelty — one for each dog. After several months of negotiations, the deputy prosecutor and Punches’ defense attorney reached an agreement in which Punches would plead guilty, via an Alford plea, to 10 of the counts, according to court documents. 

An Alford plea allows a person to plead guilty without admitting any guilt. The rest of the counts were dismissed.

While Punches did not face jail time, she was fined $13,000 in restitution expenses for the Lewis County Animal Shelter and code enforcement from Lewis County Public Health and Social Services, according to court documents. 

The plea agreement also prohibited Punches — a certified dog breeder — from breeding dogs or owning any dogs that were not spayed or neutered, according to court documents. The sentencing recommendation also prohibited Punches from owning more than two animals.

During Punches’ sentencing hearing in January, however, District Court Judge Michael P. Roewe, who entered a judgment and sentence that was mostly consistent with the agreement, declined to address the prohibition on Punches owning pets, according to court documents.

The district prosecutor filed a motion for reconsideration, requesting that the judge permanently prevent Punches from owning dogs, according to court documents.



Roewe’s refusal was due to his interpretation of that statute, which says a person can only be prohibited from owning animals if he or she has prior animal-cruelty convictions from different cases, rather than someone who has multiple convictions resulting from one case, according to court documents.

The deputy prosecutor handling the case, Kevin T. Nelson, disagreed on that interpretation and filed an appeal on April 4, requesting a reconsideration of Punches’ sentencing that would prohibit her from owning more than two animals.

The foxhounds were taken by authorities on Oct. 13, 2012, after police responded to Punches’ property to investigate an animal neglect report. Police found the dogs wading in feces and urine in their cages. A few of the dogs had parvo and giardia, and some had to be euthanized.

At the time, the Lewis County Animal Shelter did not have room for all of the dogs, and a few nearby organizations also took some of the foxhounds. It took more than a month for all the foxhounds to be adopted.

Punches lost her home, all of her belongings and 15 adult foxhounds who were held in a kennel behind her house during the 2007 flood as it buried her home on the 400 block of River Road along the Chehalis River.

Punches was trapped in her home for 36 hours. For most of a day and a half, she floated around her home — coming within 6 inches of her ceiling — on the back of an antique bookcase with four American foxhound puppies. By the time she was rescued, she was suffering from liver failure, frostbite and severe hypothermia.