MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The co-owner of a now-closed Vermont slaughterhouse has been fined $2,000 after pleading no contest to an animal cruelty charge.
The attorney general's office said 52-year-old Frank Perretta of Grand Isle changed his plea on Wednesday to the misdemeanor charge accusing him of excessively shocking a calf at the Bushway Packing plant in Grand Isle.
Perretta was given a suspended sentence of up to a year in prison. He also must forfeit any right to participate in animal husbandry or slaughterhouse activity.
Bushway Packing was shut down a year ago amid allegations stemming from a Humane Society of the United States undercover video showing calves being kicked and poked with electric prods.
