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Sick, imported dogs sold online
Blountville, TN (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Sep 29, 2002
County: Sullivan
Charges: Felony Non-CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Gina De�Lynn Hodges Price
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
A Blountville, Tenn., woman accused of selling sick puppies from eastern Europe as healthy ones she bred herself will appear before a federal jury for the first time today [June 30, 2008] in a trial that is expected to last 10-12 days.
Rebel Ridge Kennels owner Gina De'Lynn Hodges Price faces 10 federal charges, including wire fraud, mail fraud, income tax fraud and social security fraud that stem from her business' actions between September 2002 and May 2006.
According to an indictment, Price purchased English and French bulldog puppies from breeders in Lithuania, Lativa, Belarus and Russia then sold them as healthy ones through the Rebel Ridge Web site for between $1,200 and $2,800.
Many of the animals Price sold suffered from serious ailments like genetic diseases, heart murmurs or hip dysplasia, and some had to be euthanized shortly after their new owners received them.
The trial is set to start at 9 a.m. today before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer in the Greeneville, Tenn., federal court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr will prosecute the case while Kingsport, Tenn., attorney Richard Spivey will represent Price.
Though she wouldn't discuss the trial before it started, Harr has announced plans to call an IRS fraud examiner, an American Kennel Club officer and an animal welfare advocate from California to testify as expert witnesses for the prosecution.
Spivey has subpoenaed eight witnesses to testify on Price's behalf, including William Douglas Pickel, who is being held in the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail awaiting trial on 193 charges of worker's compensation fraud in an unrelated case.
When the federal trial is complete, Price is set to appear before a judge in Kingsport's Chancery Court for violating a state restraining order that barred her from selling dogs via the Internet.
Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper obtained the restraining order in May 2006 as part of a civil case his office is pursuing against Price alleging violation of Tennessee's Consumer Protection Act by "engaging in unfair and deceptive acts and practices in connections with the sale of her dogs."
Last month, Price admitted she violated the restraining order when she tried to sell seven dogs through her Web site in January.
The hearing will determine what, if any, penalties Price will face for violating the restraining order, but the action has already had a consequence in federal court.
On June 10, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis Inman banned Price from using the Internet without her attorney's supervision when the judge learned of Price's actions.
Case UpdatesGina De'Lynn Price could serve up to 65 years in prison for selling sick puppies and passing them off as healthy ones she bred herself.
A federal jury on Monday found Price, the owner of Rebel Ridge Kennels in Blountville, Tenn., guilty of seven fraud charges.
She sold English and French bulldog puppies purchased from Eastern Europe to at least 234 customers across North America, according to an FBI agent who has investigated her business since July 2005 and testified June 30 during her trial.
Special Agent David Bishop said many of the animals suffered from serious health problems, including parvo � an incurable and often fatal disease that attacks a dog's intestinal lining � and had to be euthanized when they arrived with their new owners.
Price was charged with 10 federal crimes including one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, three counts of Social Security fraud, two counts of income tax fraud and three counts of tampering with a witness.
The jury returned a not-guilty verdict for two of the three witness tampering charges. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr dropped the third witness tampering charge against Price on Thursday.
Harr used 274 exhibits and testimony from 62 witnesses as she presented her case against Price from June 30 to Thursday afternoon.
Price's attorney, Richard Spivey, presented only one witness, an accountant he said testified about Price's financial dealings on Friday before he presented his closing argument.
The jury spent two hours discussing Price's fate Friday afternoon. It continued deliberations for another three-and-a half hours Monday before presenting its verdict at about 2:30 p.m.
"The jury heard the evidence and delivered the verdict," Spivey said after the trial. He had no other comment about the case but was later heard telling one of Price's colleagues he "gave it the best shot" that he could.
Harr said Price could serve up to 20 years in prison for both the mail fraud and wire fraud charges. She could serve up to five years in prison for the five income tax and Social Security fraud charges. She will be sentenced on Dec. 8. | Source: Tricities.Com - July 15, 2008
Update posted on Aug 1, 2008 - 9:44PM |
A Blountville, Tenn., kennel owner's trial is the first time a dog importer has been prosecuted in the United States, according to a California attorney who has followed the issue for several years.
John Hoffman has been monitoring the dog-import business since September 2004 when he sued and shut down a California dog kennel accused of importing sick bulldog puppies from Eastern Europe and selling them over the Internet.
Hoffman, who testified as an expert witness Wednesday, told a California television station in an interview two years ago that Gina De'Lynn Price � who owns Blountville's Rebel Ridge Kennels � was "one of the more notorious of the puppy owners."
At that time, Price was under FBI investigation.
FBI Special Agent David Bishop said Monday that Price sold dogs to at least 234 people across the U.S. and Canada and that many of them suffered from health problems and had to be euthanized shortly after their owners received them.
"Unfortunately, there's not much you can do," Hoffman said Thursday in an interview about how importers work and the difficulty in fighting them. "There's inadequate regulation here [in the U.S.] and zero regulation."
He said about 20,000 dogs are imported to the U.S. each year. While most of them are English and French bulldogs, he has heard about people importing Bernese Mountain dogs, Yorkshire terriers, Norwich terriers, and Havanese.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, any dog shipped from overseas must be quarantined for at least four months, but Hoffman said the rule is seldom enforced and that dog buyers are hesitant to purchase an animal that is more than two or three months old.
He said even the buyers themselves are hesitant to take legal action against an importer because the costs of pursuing such a case often outweigh the money the person spent on the dog in the first place.
"When you talk about a two- or three-thousand dollar purchase and the buyer's out of state, what are you going to do?" Hoffman said in an interview outside the courtroom.
Gate City, Va., veterinarian David Redwine testified Thursday that while Price brought dogs to be examined at his office, she mostly just wanted to obtain a climate certificate � which simply certifies that a dog is healthy enough to be shipped in the cargo hold of an airplane � instead of a full health exam.
He said Price followed his advice if he thought a particular dog needed some medical treatment before it was shipped, but he also testified that several climate certificates Price sent to her customers appeared to have been altered based on the documents showed to him by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr.
The federal prosecutor also has brought several of Price's buyers to testify during her trial.
Sarah Hostler testified that while she was relatively happy with her dog, she never received the proper paperwork to register it with the American Kennel Club even though she paid $200 for the documents.
Hostler was also upset that Price's Web site showed pictures of a ridge behind the kennel and claimed the dogs had been raised there. Yet, when the dog arrived at the airport, it had a foreign pedigree, foreign inoculation record and a passport showing it came from an Eastern European country.
"We were floored to see the dog was born overseas," Hostler said, adding she would not have purchased the dog had she known it was imported. "We actually thought the dog was being raised on her property in Tennessee." | Source: Tricities.Com - July 4, 2008
Update posted on Aug 1, 2008 - 9:43PM |
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