Animal cruelty

BOSTON – A federal judge dismissed animal cruelty charges against a dog owner who chose not to follow a vet’s recommendation that she euthanize her terminally ill dog. Instead, the owner insisted the dog die a natural death at home, allowing it to suffer for weeks with an open, necrotic wound. The law does not recognize a person’s failure to intervene in an animal’s long, painful death as an act of animal cruelty.