The punishment should fit the crime

Read these first few paragraphs from a recent AP story:

TOMS RIVER, N.J. – A contractor changing the locks on an abandoned New Jersey house knew something was wrong as soon as he got near it.
Even from outside, the stench was overpowering. The contractor called police, who found a grotesque scene inside.
Beneath a veil of hundreds of flies, there was row after row of cages with the mummified remains of animals, some of which were so badly decomposed that officers had to use wire cutters to peel them from the cages. Animal feces was everywhere; a prosecutor walked through the Barnegat Township house wearing a haz-mat suit.
Piles of bones and fur that might have been a ferret or two were on the floor. And in the freezer, individually wrapped in towels, then tucked away in zip-lock plastic bags, were the bodies of 28 kittens.
By the end of the day, the remains of 68 animals, including dogs, cats and turtles, were found in the home where Matthew and Amanda Teymant once lived.

Now, can you guess how much jail time the Teymants got? That answer would be zero. Not a single day behind bars for these sad excuses for human beings. Prosecutors wanted Matthew Teymant to get a year behind bars. Instead, he and his wife were sentenced to probation and community service. The couple's lawyer explained that his clients become overwhelmed when they had two children and could no longer devote enough time to the animals. Gee, I guess they didn't have the five minutes that would have been required for a call to an animal rescue organization or the Humane Society. Instead, when they started having problems with their house, including a sewage backup, they just walked away, leaving dead and dying animals behind. Since the court system has failed miserably in this case, might I suggest that as their community service, the Teymants be required to live in small cages for a week, with no food or water. Cruel and unusual, you say? Maybe so, but wouldn't that punishment fit their crimes?