Sep 22, 2016 1 min read

WILKES-BARRE – A Pennsylvania man who drowned a boxful of ferrets will spend 2½ to 6 years in prison for that crime and several unrelated offenses, including falsely telling a judge he had a dying sister.

A Luzerne County judge sentenced 23-year-old Michael Craige to nine months to two years in prison for the animal cruelty charges, and more time for the other offenses, including beating up a woman and crashing a car he didn’t have permission to drive.

The Wilkes-Barre man was also sentenced Tuesday for falsely telling a judge his sister was terminally ill and needed his help to keep breathing in order to avoid being jailed on a bench warrant earlier this year.

Craige boxed up another woman’s four ferrets and tossed them into the Susquehanna River in July 2015.