Volkerson Kennels owner Barbara Glover has returned to court in an effort to overturn her conviction on 32 violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Photo / Supplied
Volkerson Kennels owner Barbara Glover has returned to court in an effort to overturn her conviction on 32 violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Photo / Supplied
A woman who was once considered one of New Zealand’s top breeders of German Shepherds - then later banned from owning dogs altogether after becoming the focus of one of the SPCA’s largest-ever prosecutions - returned to court today in an effort to overturn her conviction.
Volkerson Kennels owner Barbara Glover and her daughter, Janine Wallace, went on trial in Manukau District Court in January for dozens of alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
Judge Karen Grau found the pair guilty in April of 26 counts each of failing to meet the physical, health and behavioural needs of an animal and six counts of failing to alleviate the pain or distress of an ill animal.
They were sentenced in July, with Wallace ordered to serve 12 months of intensive supervision and 300 hours of community work and Glover sentenced to nine months’ supervision. Both were disqualified from owning dogs for nine years.
The two sat in the gallery at the High Court at Auckland today as lawyer Dan Gardiner suggested that the district court judge erred in her evaluation of the evidence. In retrospect, he said, she needed to see extensive body camera footage from the SPCA raid on Glover’s Pōkeno facility to adequately assess the issues.
“They’ve given their lives to breeding German Shepherd dogs,” he said.
“What the body-worn camera does show is there was enrichment in the lives of these animals.”
Glover has been recognised in the past as the country’s top German Shepherd breeder, importing pedigree bloodlines and selling puppies online for thousands of dollars.
Pirelli, a German Shepherd rescued from top breeder Barbara Glover's Pokeno kennels in 2018. Photo / Supplied
But the SPCA raided her South Auckland property in 2018. More than 30 animals were taken into SPCA care as a result of the raid, with the animal welfare agency describing squalid conditions that included some animals reportedly living among old food scraps and urine-soaked newspaper.
One of the animals had to be put down after its leg became entangled in a short rope tether, cutting off circulation and leading to a gangrenous infection.
“The mats were thick with faeces, dry mud, and when he had his first bath, the water running off his coat was dark brown,” the SPCA stated at the time of the raid.
In a 2019 “list of shame” brochure issued by the SPCA, the organisation described the scale of the investigation.
“SPCA Inspectors have spent months and over $300,000 investigating this ongoing case, and a court ruling allowed SPCA to adopt out the German Shepherds,” the organisation said.
Speaking on behalf of the organisation today, prosecutor Luke Radich said that body camera footage had been disclosed to the defence a year and a half before the three-week trial and could have been played at any time. In fact, he said, prosecutors did play several short segments of the footage to dispute the defendants’ assertions that animals were in acceptable conditions.
“It was there, it was available should anyone want to use it,” he said of the footage. “The defence used it zero times.
“Quite frankly, we considered we were doing the defendants a favour by not showing the body camera footage in its entirety.”
Janine Wallace and her mother, Barbara Glover, have each been found guilty of 32 Animal Welfare Act violations. Photo / File
He noted that prosecutors called five animal welfare inspectors, two veterinarians and an animal behavioural specialist while the defence relied mostly on testimony from Wallace in which she suggested the SPCA was corrupt and conspiratorial.
“It was perhaps not surprising that Judge Grau came back with the findings that she did,” he said.
As for the pair’s sentences, Radich suggested that the nine-year dog ban could have potentially be longer given their “lack of insight” and “complete insistence that nothing wrong was done”.
Radich described the commercial operation as having accelerated after Glover’s daughter lost her real estate licence due to legal troubles around 2016 and moved back to the property.
