4 p.m. Thursday 10/24   (AP) — A state House member from western Missouri has been convicted of misdemeanor animal abuse for the escape of his cattle from a pasture.

Republican Warren Love, of Osceola, was found guilty Thursday by a judge in St. Clair County. He is to be sentenced in November. Maximum penalties are a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Love says he is disappointed but not surprised. The St. Clair County prosecutor had said in court documents that Love had cattle in his custody and knowingly failed to provide adequate control of the animals.

Love took office in January. He joined fellow lawmakers last month in overriding Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of legislation that included a change in Missouri’s animal abuse and neglect law.

A western Missouri legislator is headed to trial on a misdemeanor charge of animal neglect after his cattle escaped from a pasture last year.

House Republican Warren Love, of Osceola, was ticketed in August 2012. He’s scheduled to be tried by a judge Oct. 24.

Love said Thursday his cattle escaped and went to a field that had burned. He said the cattle did not cause damage and that he moved them to a hay meadow where they stayed contained. Love says he does not neglect his cattle.

Love joined lawmakers last month in overriding Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of legislation that included a change in the definition of animal neglect.