By Sunayana Prabhu
MIDDLETOWN – Marlene Sandford, convicted in the 2020 Belford dog hoarding case, was sentenced Oct. 19 to six months in jail and fined $30,500 by the Middletown Municipal Court. Sanford was found guilty of 61 counts of animal cruelty. The sentence includes a lifetime pet ownership ban.
Sandford housed over 60 dogs in “absolutely horrific” living conditions, according to Ross Licitra, Monmouth County SPCA executive director, in a small apartment inside a residential home in the Belford section of Middletown. The matter came to light in July 2020 when Sandford’s family member called the MCSPCA cruelty hotline to advise of the situation. Staff, along with members of the Middletown Township Police Department and Middletown Animal Control, arrived at the home about an hour later and rescued the animals.
According to a statement from the MCSPCA, the dogs of all ages were living in “deplorable conditions… stacked in crates, had no food and water, and were living in their own feces and urine.”
As reported by The Two River Times at the time, the MCSPCA team “spent hours inside the sweltering house, with ammonia so strong it burned their eyes, in full PPE until every single dog was out safely recovered and brought back to our shelter.”
All of the dogs were transferred to the MCSPCA’s Eatontown facility where they were groomed, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and received necessary surgeries. One dog in particular, Mary Lou, became the “poster dog” of this hoarding case. Her fur was so matted it “grew around her legs – leaving her deformed and needing corrective surgery and amputation.”
All of the dogs were eventually adopted.
At the time Licitra noted this was Sandford’s “second animal cruelty charge” and “first criminal offense” for “breeding and selling dogs out of her home in these poor conditions.”
In 2009, Sandford was charged for running an inhome puppy mill and had 80 dogs in her home.
From 2020 to 2023, Sanford’s case worked its way through the court, delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and multiple appeals.
“There is no greater victory than when justice is brought forth, especially when the lives of innocent animals are involved,” Licitra said in a release following the sentencing. “We are so proud of our Monmouth County SPCA Law Enforcement Division along with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the Middletown Township Police for the persistence, professionalism, and most of all, hard work it took to finally bring this case to an end. This is a big win for animal welfare, and we can’t reiterate enough that animal cruelty will not be tolerated in our community.”
The article originally appeared in the October 26 – November 1, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
