CHATSWORTH, Ga. — A Murray County woman has been indicted by a grand jury for 17 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, according to District Attorney Bert Poston, in connection with a dog hoarding case.

Poston said Sandra Lee faces up to 12 months in jail on each of the charges.

In May, volunteers from the Murray County Humane Society and the Atlanta Humane Society removed 78 dogs from a property of about an acre on Old Federal Road, just north of Chatsworth.

Murray County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jimmy Davenport at the time called it “by far the largest” animal hoarding case he had seen.

Davenport said Murray County Animal Control received a tip about the property and reached out to the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office obtained a warrant to search the property and found the dogs.

The Murray County Animal Shelter contacted the Atlanta Humane Society after the dogs were discovered because the number of animals was too large for any local shelter. Officials said several of the dogs had missing eyes, likely as a result of untreated infections.

Poston said charges were based on a veterinarian’s report on each of the dogs and charges were not appropriate for each dog.

Poston said the misdemeanor charges are based on neglect. He said felony animal cruelty charges would require “malicious intent to cause the actual harm. There was no evidence of malice in this case.”

Poston said a warrant was issued Wednesday for Lee’s arrest.

“We asked (the sheriff’s office) to hold off on any warrant until we could get the vet and investigator up from the Atlanta Humane Society to provide us more details and their opinion. That conversation took place Monday prior to the presentation of the case to the grand jury and they testified before the grand jury,” he said.

Atlanta Humane Society officials said last month 60 of the dogs had been adopted and they expected all would eventually be adopted.