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Trio plead guilty to animal cruelty charges
Kennel owner ordered to pay SPCA $122,000
By ANDREW TANGEL
The News Journal
06/20/2006
More than 300 animals seized in February from a kennel in Lower Oxford Township, Pa., can go up for adoption after kennel owner Michael Wolf and two co-defendants pleaded guilty to animal-cruelty charges Monday.
The animals -- mostly dogs but also a few cats and parrots -- likely won't be available until July, said Chuck McDevitt, spokesman for the Chester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Wolf, 65, must pay the SPCA more than $122,000 for caring for the animals -- many of which required veterinary attention -- since February and a $6,000 fine. A lien was placed on his property.
Co-defendant Gordon Trottier will have to pay the SPCA about $31,300 in restitution and was fined $3,000. A third defendant, Margaret Hills, was fined $3,000.
Each defendant pleaded guilty to 60 counts of animal cruelty, pre-empting an appeal hearing that was to begin Monday in West Chester. A District court judge in Oxford found them guilty of the charges in late April, after hearing testimony about the squalid conditions in which the animals were housed.
Wolf, in a brief telephone interview, suggested he had too many dogs because he simply loved animals.
"They were happy. They ate. They went out and they played," he said. "I mean, why would I hurt them?"
Wolf was a well-known dog breeder who had competed in high-profile dog shows.
"I signed away my life's work today," Wolf said Monday. He said he was depressed and didn't know how he'd pay the fines against him.
Wolf said the SPCA didn't give him enough time to clean up his property, and that the conditions weren't as bad as described in earlier court testimony.
"Dogs are always going to go to the bathroom," he said. "They're always going to rip up the papers."
Along with the animal-cruelty charges, Wolf and Trottier pleaded guilty to operating a kennel without a license and were each fined $350, plus court costs, McDevitt said. Trottier was also sentenced to two years of probation and fined $200 for resisting arrest and assaulting a Pennsylvania state trooper who was assisting the SPCA.
All three defendants were prohibited to own or work with animals for 15 years.
Hills declined to comment. Neither attorneys for the the defendants nor an assistant Chester County district attorney could be reached Monday.