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Case #1494 Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Hoarding approximately 50 exotic animals
Greenfield, WI (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jun 9, 2000
County: Milwaukee
Disposition: Convicted
Defendants/Suspects:
» John D. Walters
» Jamie L. Verburgt
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
A man was charged with nine misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals after police found a zoo's worth of exotic pets in his cramped apartment.
John D. Walters, 22, was also charged with a felony count of criminal damage to property. Police called to the apartment to investigate loud noises found about 50 animals including a cougar, a mountain lion, a black leopard, 13 chinchillas, three prairie dogs, an 8-foot-long python and other animals.
According to the criminal complaint, officers arriving at the apartment Monday saw a cougar through a window. A peek through another window revealed a 50- to 70-pound mountain lion lounging in a bedroom. Shortly after, Walters exited the apartment carrying a mountain lion, according to the complaint.
As police and animal control officers searched the apartment, Walters gave them an inventory of animals living with him. He told police that one of his cougars slept with him at night and that he had $7,000 worth of venomous snakes and was planning to breed them.
Walters said his freezer contained several dead animals, including a silver-tailed fox, several lizards and a coatimundi. He intended to bury them or have them stuffed, Walters said.
As police were arresting Walters, he told them there was a package waiting for him at Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport - a shipment of mice and rats.
Walters has been cited previously for keeping wild animals in Brown Deer and was tagged by U.S. Customs agents for shipping exotic animals, including poisonous snakes, through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Case UpdatesA man who had more than 100 ducks, reptiles and bugs in his Germantown apartment pleaded guilty March 27 to two felonies in exchange for having 35 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty dismissed.
Circuit Judge David C. Resheske found John D. Walters, 28, guilty of criminal damage to property and mistreatment of animals causing death.
According to a criminal complaint, Germantown police found 65 adult ducks and aquariums filled with snakes, iguanas, alligators, yellow-bellied toads, red-eared slider turtles, geckos and flesh-eating dermestid beetles in an apartment where Walters lived.
The felony charges stem from a dead iguana that was found there and the damage caused to the apartment. | Source: JSonline - March 28, 2006
Update posted on Apr 11, 2006 - 12:44AM |
Forty-two counts of mistreatment of animals and other charges against a woman accused of sharing her Germantown apartment with more than 100 ducks, reptiles and bugs were dismissed Friday.
As part of a plea agreement, Jamie L. Verburgt, 22, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of intentionally mistreating animals. She reached a deferred prosecution agreement on that charge, which gives her an opportunity to clear her record.
Verburgt and John D. Walters, 27, were each charged in November with two felonies and 41 misdemeanors accusing them of damaging property and mistreating animals, according to a criminal complaint filed in Washington County Circuit Court.
The felony charges stem from the death of an iguana and a damaged Germantown apartment where Verburgt and Walters lived at the time.
After the landlord reported a foul odor coming from the apartment, police found 65 adult ducks in an 8-by-8-foot wooden box in the basement, an upstairs bedroom containing aquariums filled with snakes, iguanas, alligators, yellow-bellied toads, red-eared slider turtles, geckos and flesh-eating dermestid beetles, according to a criminal complaint.
In a freezer in the kitchen, they also discovered plastic bags filled with carcasses of raccoons, squirrels, mice, rats and other "road kill," which were used to feed the snakes, reptiles and beetles, according to the complaint.
If convicted of all charges, Verburgt could have been sentenced to 37 years and nine months in prison and ordered to pay fines totaling $430,000.
Walters faces the same penalties, but because he pleaded guilty to similar charges in 2000, he could be sentenced to an extra 90 years in prison as a repeat offender if found guilty. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 21. Prosecutors indicated Friday to Circuit Judge David Resheske, however, that they are nearing a plea agreement with Walters, as well. | Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Aug 16, 2005
Update posted on Aug 21, 2005 - 5:07PM |
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