Case Report

A couple accused of being father and daughter and held on incest charges pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and were ordered not to have a pet for the rest of their lives.

Carroll Ferdinandsen, 53, and Alice Ferdinandsen, 30, were sentenced to six months in jail Thursday after entering the pleas.

Circuit Judge Judson Wells also said that, as a condition of accepting their pleas, he was ordering them to never have a pet again.

"Never is a very, very, very long time," the judge told the Ferdinandsens. "You are never to own pets, you are never to breed pets."

The second-degree animal cruelty charges were filed against them after authorities found two dead dogs, a dead bird and other poorly treated dogs at the couple's mobile home in Theodore. One of the dogs that survived later had to be put to sleep.

The Ferdinandsens had been arrested earlier on incest charges after relatives said they were father and daughter. An October trial is scheduled on those charges.

In the animal cruelty case, Wells said the Ferdinandsens will have to submit to spot checks from the Mobile Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The spot checks will not be to see if the Ferdinandsens are taking care of their pets, Wells said, but to make sure they have no pets at all.

"It sends a real clear message, that people will go to jail for stuff like this," said Elizabeth Flott, a humane officer for the Mobile SPCA.

"We'll check up on these people," she said. "They're going to be gone for a long time besides these charges. They probably won't be at the same residence, but we'll find them."

The Mobile Register has reported that court records show Alice was the third child of Carroll and Shirley Faye Ferdinandsen, and her mother filed for divorce when Alice was only 4 months old. Her mother said she later met and married Charles Stewart, who Alice listed as her father on her marriage license application after previously using "Ferdinandsen" as her last name, the newspaper said.

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