SLIPPERY ROCK — A woman charged with animal cruelty refused to relinquish legal ownership of her pets to the Butler County Humane Society during a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Sona M. Murphy, 41, of Worthington, Armstrong County, waived charges during the hearing. Murphy has no lawyer and appeared in court without legal aid.

She is charged with nine counts of cruelty to animals and six counts each of neglect of animals and failing to license the dogs.

Nicole Thurner, an attorney who does volunteer legal work for the humane society, tried to get Murphy to forfeit her ownership of six dogs and three cats that were found in January in an unoccupied trailer home in Prospect. But Murphy wouldn't sign the animals over.

Instead, she claimed to District Judge William S. O'Donnell that two of the animals were “support dogs.”

But Thurner said afterward that the animals are the ones that are in need of help. “We're incurring all these costs and we'll never see it again,” Thurner said, noting that medical costs for the animals are already more than $11,000 and continue to mount.

Thurner hopes that as the case proceeds, the society will be able to get a court order forcing Murphy to pay the medical costs.

For the moment, Thurner is worried that if the case against Murphy is dropped or if she is found not guilty, the animals will have to be returned to Murphy.

The animals are being housed at the humane society, where they were recently treated for parasites and a new wave of infection has caused one of the dogs, Charlie, to be transported to a Pittsburgh veterinary hospital for treatment.

If Murphy is found guilty, the dogs could be taken away from her permanently, Thurner said.

Police were responding to an animal welfare check in January when they found the animals in a home at a trailer court on David Street. Police described the inside as being covered in feces and having a lack available water.

Police eventually tracked down and spoke to Murphy Jan. 24. She admitted to taking the dogs and cats to the trailer home Jan. 10 and leaving them.

She returned Jan. 13 to check on them, but acknowledged that she had not been back since then. According to police, she was unaware that the animals had been removed and were in the custody of the state.