ALLENTOWN — A commercial breeder charged with neglecting scores of dogs and cats was convicted Monday of animal cruelty, capping a high-profile case state officials have used to tout their crackdown on substandard kennels.

A Lehigh County jury convicted Derbe "Skip" Eckhart of two misdemeanor counts of cruelty — both for failing to maintain a sanitary kennel — after prosecutors alleged he permitted animals at Almost Heaven Kennel to live in their own feces and urine.

"Obviously they were persuaded that the conditions of the kennel were unacceptable," Chief Deputy District Attorney Jay Jenkins said following the verdict in Allentown.

Eckhart was also convicted of operating the kennel in violation of a state order to shut down. He faces a maximum of five years in prison when he is sentenced May 18.

Prosecutors told jurors Eckhart ran Almost Heaven on the cheap and ignored the horrible conditions that developed.

"The motive here is greed, even if the defendant doesn't want to admit it," Jenkins said in his closing argument.

Eckhart was charged with cruelty after a 2008 raid by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement. Prosecution witnesses testified that dogs and cats pulled from Almost Heaven suffered from severe, painful matting and a variety of skin, eye and upper respiratory ailments.