Ladner dog walker Emma Paulsen received a six-month jail sentence in Surrey provincial court Wednesday morning.
Paulsen pleaded guilty to charges of public mischief for making a false police report and causing an animal to continue to be in distress under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act after leaving six dogs to die in the back of her truck last spring.
She received three months on each charge as well as a 10-year ban on owning animals and lifetime ban on caring for animals for money.
At a sentencing hearing last week, Crown counsel Jim MacAulay argued that Paulsen should spend six to 12 months behind bars for the offenses. He also asked Judge James Jardine to impose a fine of $5,000 to $10,000, a 10-year ban on owning any animals and a lifetime ban on caring for anyone else's animals, whether for pay or not.
Paulsen's lawyer, Eric Warren, asked the judge to impose a conditional sentence that would be served in the community or an intermittent sentence, which would allow her to serve her time on weekends or days off.
On May 13 of last year, Paulsen claimed she had driven the dogs from Delta to Langley to let them play at a dog park.
She would later tell police, reporters and privately hired pet investigators that she had gone to the washroom for 10 to 15 minutes, and when she returned, the back canopy of her pickup was open and the dogs were missing.
She admitted less than a week later the entire tale was a fabrication and the dogs had died after she left in the back of her truck while she went shopping.
