A Chatham County, North Carolina woman is accused of betraying two kinds of trust at once: the trust of an elderly family member, and the trust of animals who depended on her for basic care.

According to the Chatham County Sheriff's Office, Maggi Elizabeth Brady used her power of attorney over her older adult uncle's finances to move his money into her own accounts, allegedly without his knowledge, racking up dozens of felony charges for exploitation, identity theft, financial card fraud, and obtaining property under false pretenses. Then, deputies say, after leaving her home for weeks, she left behind animals with no reliable access to food or water: two pigs trapped in a fenced enclosure, along with chickens, ducks, rabbits, and a dog that neighbors ultimately had to step in and rescue.

Brady has posted bond in both cases and is due back in Chatham County court on September 21, but posting bond is not the same as accountability. When someone is trusted to protect a vulnerable elder's finances and an entire household of animals, and instead uses that trust to exploit and neglect them, the response has to match the scale of the betrayal.

We're calling on the Chatham County District Attorney's Office to pursue the full range of charges Brady faces, in both the elder exploitation case and the animal cruelty case, and to seek penalties that reflect the harm done to a vulnerable adult and to animals who had no way to protect themselves. Sign this petition to demand full accountability, before another vulnerable person or animal is left to suffer the same way.