A former livestock inspector was left shocked when he was sentenced to jail time for laughing while he filmed a sickly moose being abused.

Justin Martin, 55, was facing two felony counts of cruelty to animals, accessory before the fact, in connection with the mistreatment of moose twice in May 2021.

His son, Range Martin, 24, and a third man, Kylan Platt, 23, were also charged with a single felony count of cruelty to an animal.

All of the men had agreed to a plea deal over the summer that did not call for any time served behind bars.

But on Friday, Judge James Kaste ordered the elder Martin to serve 30 days at the Uinta County Detention Center in Wyoming and increased his supervised probation from two to three years, WyoFile reports.

‘Wildlife of Wyoming belongs to the people of Wyoming,’ the judge said as he handed down the sentence. ‘You do this kind of nonsense in Wyoming, where we value our wildlife, you’re going to jail.’

Authorities have said the younger Martin had lassoed an unhealthy and likely blind cow moose around her neck and dragged her through dense brush before the animal collapsed on May 4, 2021.

In a separate incident, prosecutors said Platt roped, rode and aggressively spurred a moose on Martin’s 5,000-acre M Arrow Ranch north of Bear River, near the border of Utah on May 21, 2021. It is unclear whether it was the same moose involved.

Justin, meanwhile, was accused of encouraging and celebrating Platt’s behavior as he laughed and filmed the incident.

‘Alright now, spur that son of a b***h… spur on him,’ Justin could be heard saying in the video.

The elder Martin, who previously served as a state livestock inspector, was then said to have shared the video with his family and friends.

He then told one friend: ‘Looks like he was ran down a little. That’s good s**t. Not many kids can say they have rode a moose.’

Both Platt and Martin’s son have claimed the incident occurred when the younger Martin was ‘moving cows and checking gates’ and that the moose was interfering with his operation.

‘I roped it… I tried to drag it out of the way,’ Range said as he changed his plea deal on June 22.

That is when Platt said he climbed onto the moose, and Martin started taking videos.

He insisted that the moose was not as sickly as previously reported by state Game and Fish investigators, noting ‘she was relatively healthy enough to run around.

‘She was far from dying,’ Platt said. ‘I didn’t burn her [or] start her on fire.’

But Wyoming Game and Fish Department Game Warden Heather Sterling refuted their version of events at Friday’s sentencing.

She said she ‘extensively reviewed the footage’ and found there were no fences nearby and ‘there are no cattle visible for the duration of the video’ as Range and Platt had originally stated.

Sterling also argued that the elder Martin, who had served as a Wyoming Livestock Board brand inspector for 16 years ‘was supposed to be a respected member of the community… part of his job was to assist enforcement officers in livestock investigations, this includes animal welfare cases.

‘He was trusted to guide others in the respectful treatment of animals,’ she noted. ‘This treatment of that cow moose is unacceptable.’

Martin has since been fired from his position, with Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon saying his ‘absolutely irresponsible behavior’ is ‘unbefitting a brand inspector.’

At his sentencing on Friday, Martin apologized for his behavior that day, noting that he was the adult in the situation. His son was 18 years old at the time and Platt was 17.

‘I’m the adult. I’m the one in the wrong. I apologize for the waste of people’s time, for the waste of people’s money, for the waste of having any kind of problem,’ he said, according to Cowboy State Daily.

‘That’s on me. I’ve tried to make the best restitution I could come up with in my own mind, to try to make this better,’ Martin then continued, noting he made two $3,750 donations to Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Wildlife Damages and Wildlife Crossing entities.

‘I’ve still got a lot more to do to do that,’ he noted.

Meanwhile, the younger Martin’s attorney noted that he has since finished high school, performed a church mission, is ranching with his own cattle and is otherwise an ‘upstanding young man.’

Range then told the court he was ‘sorry for what I did.’

‘I don’t like being in trouble. I will never do it again,’ he vowed.

Platt’s attorney, J Craig Abraham, also noted at the sentencing on Friday that his client was only 17 when he rode and spurred the moose and that he matured.

‘I think it’s hard to find a 17 year old in today’s society that didn’t do some really stupid thing to do,’ he said, admitting that his client got on and spurred the animal.

‘I would submit that it was the actions of a 17-year-old hormonal-driven… the statute calls him a child.’

In the end, Kaste mostly followed the terms of the younger Martin’s and Platt’s plea agreements – sentencing them to three years of supervised probation under a state law that allows first time offenders to avoid felonies if they stay out of trouble.

He also sentenced all three men to 576 hours of community service, saying it was ‘the most productive thing I can do.’

‘I truly believe that the three of you, 99 percent of your life are fine, upstanding gentlemen,’ Kaste told the animal abusers on Friday.

‘But you screwed up and you know that and you are making good on it, and I appreciate that. And will look forward to not ever seeing the three of you in this courtroom.’