Manitoba Judge Goes Soft on Puppy Mill Operators

“It was, in a word, hell.”

Such was the response when provincial officials conducted their reported July 2000 raid on Walter and Marlene Hiebert’s Manitoba, Canada, puppy mill. That visit led to the seizure of 100 dogs from “squalid, filthy and hazardous” conditions. A pregnant St. Bernard—covered in maggots and suffering from an injured leg—was found in an excrement-filled cage, unable to stand. A crippled Chihuahua and a poodle—whose untreated hernia had apparently produced a grapefruit-sized protrusion from her abdomen—were crammed into a crate and abandoned in an unventilated outhouse. Other dogs were stuffed into small, feces-infested kennels—some left limping in open-air enclosures—with no protection from weather extremes.

Reports indicate that Walter Hiebert had a history of gross and egregious animal neglect, with multiple convictions on similar charges dating back to the 1990s. In an alleged 1995 raid eerily similar to last summer’s, approximately 100 dogs were seized from his possession.

For more information about the Hiebert case, please click here.

Allegedly “snickering” and “chuckling” during their sentencing hearing, the Hieberts faced up to six months in jail for the six counts of cruelty to animals facing them—but amazingly, Judge Heather Pullan opted only to fine them.

Please urge Judge Pullan to take crimes against animals seriously in the future. Remind her that by doing otherwise, she puts both the community at large as well as its animals at grave risk. For more information, click here.

Judge Heather Pullan
Provincial Building
284 Reimer Ave.
Box 21480
Steinbach, Manitoba R0A 2T3
Canada
204-346-6071

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