Tobi was a family cat who lived with a 15-year-old boy in Ellicott, Colorado. On June 3, the family’s security cameras recorded a neighbor, Ashley Losey, picking Tobi up, taking him inside her house, and tossing him out her back door into a yard where her two dogs attacked him.

Losey pleaded guilty on Oct. 7 to aggravated cruelty to animals. It’s a felony punishable by two to six years behind bars under Colorado law. But the plea deal on the table would keep her out of prison entirely. She would get three years of probation, 75 hours of public service, a $500 fine, and a 30-day jail term that is suspended as long as she meets the conditions. Five other charges, including two counts of child abuse with no injury, would be dropped.

The final decision belongs to District Court Judge Laura N. Findorff. The agreement doesn’t bind her, and she can turn it down at Losey’s sentencing on Nov. 18.

Over the summer, 14,623 people signed a petition from In Defense of Animals asking District Attorney Michael J. Allen to pursue the maximum penalty and skip a plea deal. Prosecutors made the deal regardless.

A felony caught on video and followed by a guilty plea should carry real consequences. The deal’s ban on owning animals lasts only as long as her sentence, so more animals could be at risk later. A teenager lost his cat to a deliberate act of cruelty, and the sentence should reflect that.

Judge Findorff can reject this deal and impose a sentence that matches the crime, including a much longer ban on owning animals.

Sign the petition to urge Judge Findorff to reject the plea deal before sentencing on Nov. 18.