[JohnnieWalker]

Finally a step in the right direction. For anybody following this case in Northern Minnesota here is an update. Hopefully, this dreadful woman won't be able to sell to pet stores around the country any more. I realize, this is only a small victory. But it will put a dent in her operations, her income and her reputation. If she even has something like that.
Here is the newspaper article as published in the Fergus Falls Daily Journal.



USDA: Revoke license for breeding facility

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are asking a judge to revoke the license of a New York Mills dog breeder convicted of animal abuse.

The motion against Kathy Jo Bauck, 53, was filed in mid-August by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which manages licenses for breeding facilities. In the motion, the agency asks that Bauck’s license to operate Pick of the Litter Kennels/Puppies on Wheels be terminated for at least two years.

The USDA filed the motion in response to Bauck’s criminal convictions in Otter Tail County District Court. In March a jury found Bauck guilty of three counts of torture and one count of cruelty to animals, charges related to the mistreatment of a mastiff. The charges were brought against Bauck in 2008 by a former employee who later admitted to working for the Companion Animal Protection Society, a national animal rights organization.

The same jury cleared Bauck of two felony counts of cruelty to animals. She served jail time earlier this summer.

Bauck has not been the owner of Pick of Litter Kennels since April 2008, when her husband and daughter took ownership of the New York Mills facility.

In the motion prepared this month, the USDA calls Bauck and related parties unfit to hold a license. To revoke her license without a suspension period would jeopardize the integrity of the USDA and send a message that there are no consequences for people who violate animal protection laws, wrote a top official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

A phone call to Bauck’s attorney, Zenas Baer, was not immediately returned.