People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Tuesday issued a press release on the matter, reporting Corques Lamar Johnson took a plea to three out of the six counts against him.
The clerk’s office also confirmed the plea as well as a statement by PETA saying Johnson was barred from owning any dogs for 18 months.
The plea comes after two PETA fieldworkers discovered three dogs on his property last November while delivering straw.
One was kept inside a dark wooden-and-wire-mesh box only inches away from his dead littermate, another chained to a plastic doghouse, and a third whose decomposing remains were found later in a garbage can. Five survivors in urgent need of veterinary care were also found.
A necropsy report on the three deceased dogs revealed starvation and dehydration as the cause of death in each case.
Of the five survivors, three were severely emaciated and none had access to food or water.
"Nothing will undo the immense suffering that these dogs endured over a long period of time," said PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch in the statement. "While this sentence is unusually light for a case of this severity, PETA will monitor the situation and urges Halifax County to prevent future similar cases by following the lead of Enfield, Roanoke Rapids, Scotland Neck, and Weldon and banning 24/7 tethering of dogs, which often leads to neglect."