Volkerson Kennels owner Barbara Glover has last her appeal regarding her multiple criminal convictions for animal welfare failure. Photo / Supplied
A woman 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 - has lost her appeal.
In a newly released 26-page judgment, Justice Paul Davison left to stand all 26 convictions against Volkerson Kennels owner Barbara Glover for failing to meet the physical, health and behavioural needs of animals and six counts of failing to alleviate the pain or distress of ill animals. Her daughter, Janine Wallace, was convicted of the same charges.
The pair were found guilty following a judge-alone trial in Manukau District Court early last year.
Wallace was ordered to serve 12 months of intensive supervision and 300 hours of community work and Glover was sentenced to nine months’ supervision. Both were disqualified from owning dogs for nine years.
The case moved to the High Court at Auckland in November, as a hearing was held before Justice Davison to dispute the district court conviction and sentence.
A lawyer for the pair argued that the case should be reconsidered because the district court judge did not consider body camera footage from two SPCA officers. He also argued that the nine-year ban on owning animals was “manifestly excessive”, amounting to a lifetime ban for Glover, who is 84 and had no previous animal welfare convictions.
Glover had been recognised in the past as the country’s top German Shepherd breeder, importing pedigree bloodlines and selling puppies online for thousands of dollars.
But the SPCA raided her Pōkeno property, south of Auckland, in 2017 and 2018. The agency noted squalid conditions, caused in part by overcrowding.
District Court Judge Karen Grau, who oversaw the trial, noted in her sentencing decision that there were two dogs that were found in particularly bad shape.
“Debbie, a pregnant bitch, was locked in a small, filthy crate inside a locked, dark utility shed,” the trial judge noted. “She had a dirty and matted coat. She had an untreated and obvious ear infection. Ms Wallace, your explanation was fanciful.
“You said this dog was being monitored and observed because she was pregnant and that she was being groomed for one to two hours daily by your mother and another volunteer worker. But the reality was she was hidden away lying in her own faeces and likely in pain. She had pus coming out of her ear which would have been obvious to anyone who was actually caring for her.
“I found it likely that she was being hidden from the SPCA. She was a dog who was likely to increase the population of dogs at the very time the SPCA was telling you that you needed to reduce numbers so that you could care adequately for those dogs.”
The other dog, Ritza, was found tied up in a small enclosure inside a hay barn. Her case was even worse, the judge said.
“The tether was twisted around her leg; her leg was forced up next to her head,” the judge noted. “The tether was cutting into her leg and acting as a tourniquet, cutting off the blood supply. This dog was completely helpless, not even able to make a sound.”
The dog, who had to be euthanised following a gangrenous infection, had likely been in that position for hours, the judge said.
Glover and Wallace would sell the dogs they raised for between $2000 and $5000 each, the court was told. Wallace became involved in her mother’s business about a decade ago, “during or after a real estate career you had that ended in criminal charges from what I can tell”, Judge Grau noted in her decision.
During the High Court appeal hearing in November, lawyer Dan Gardiner urged Justice Davison to consider the bodycam footage, suggesting that still images shown to the district court judge were taken out of context.
“They’ve given their lives to breeding German Shepherd dogs,” Gardiner said of his clients. “What the body-worn camera does show is there was enrichment in the lives of these animals.”
Luke Radich, who represented the SPCA, noted that during the trial prosecutors called to testify 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.
The bodycam footage was readily available and the defence could have played it at trial, so it can’t be considered new evidence and used as the basis of an appeal, he argued.
Justice Davison agreed but watched the footage anyway.
“Having viewed the video recordings, I am satisfied that they show the circumstances and conditions in which the appellants’ dogs were being housed or kept, and the appearance of the dogs themselves is consistent with the descriptions of what the SPCA witnesses said they observed,” he wrote.
Justice Davison also agreed that the nine-year ban was within range, especially considering the pair’s refusal to accept responsibility, and he upheld an order that each defendant pay $20,000 for costs in prosecuting the case.
He noted that the SPCA expenses for the investigation itself exceeded $310,000 and the legal costs were another $70,000. Asking the pair to pay roughly 13 per cent of the investigation cost could be considered “reasonable if not generous”, he said.