Two of the leaders of the Salina Animal Shelter will appear in Saline County District Court near the end of the month to face misdemeanor criminal charges.

According to Saline County District Court records, a Notice to Appear in court was filed Monday for Animal Services Manager Monique Hawley and Operations Superintendent Andrea Murphy. They are ordered to appear in court on April 27th.

Court records indicate both will face three counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. If found guilty, the potential penalty would be 5 days to 1 year in jail, and a fine between $500 and $2,500.

Under Kansas Law, animal cruelty can be either a felony or misdemeanor. The threshold for it to be a felony is “knowingly and maliciously killing, injuring, maiming, torturing, or burning an animal”. 

Hawley and Murphy both have been under scrutiny regarding shelter management and euthanasia practices.

A failed inspection at the shelter earlier this year found among other issues:

• Employees who had not been trained or certified in euthanasia were carrying them out
• Multiple animals were euthanized by a heart-stick lethal injection into the animal’s heart
• One cat euthanized via heart stick was never sedated

The shelter has since passed a re-inspection, and officials at a recent Salina City Commission Study Session said the shelter has learned from its past mistakes, and has taken steps to correct them and to make sure they don’t happen again. City Attorney Patrick Hoffman said the shelter “met the  minimal legal standard, but they need to do better than that”.