In August 2024, Lafayette County deputies arrived at a rural property south of Oxford, Mississippi, and found evidence of severe animal suffering. Several bulldog puppies were caged in conditions a court document described as cruel. A dog had been burned. A German Shepherd was found dead in a kennel. A dog skeleton lay on the property. Ten dogs in total were dead, some still wearing the collars and chains they had worn in life. Several more were alive but malnourished.

The property was co-owned by Terry Pegues and his wife, Charlotte Fant Pegues, a former University of Mississippi vice chancellor. Both were charged. At trial, Terry Pegues was convicted on five counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty and sentenced to two years. But on two of the most serious charges, felony aggravated animal cruelty, the jury could not agree and the judge declared a mistrial. His wife's charges were dismissed entirely after he testified that he alone was responsible for the dogs.

That outcome exposed a gap in Mississippi law. When animals die on jointly owned property, a co-owner's criminal charges can be erased by a spouse's testimony, even when that co-owner held legal rights over the land where the abuse occurred. The legislature should close that loophole so shared property cannot become a shield against accountability.

But the most immediate demand is simpler: a mistrial is not an acquittal. The Lafayette County District Attorney can still bring the two felony counts to a new jury.

Sign this petition to demand the DA retry the felony aggravated animal cruelty charges against Terry Pegues, and to call on the Mississippi legislature to reform state law so co-owners of property cannot escape accountability through a co-defendant's testimony alone.