The dog walker whose animals in her care died in the back of a pick-up truck in Richmond last summer will have to wait until next week to hear if she’ll go to jail or not.
The Crown is seeking jail time and a fine for Emma Paulsen, who left six dogs to die of heat exhaustion in a hot truck outside Costco on Bridgeport Road last May and then tried to cover up the deaths by saying they had been stolen.
Crown counsel Jim MacAulay wants Paulsen sentenced three to six months consecutively for public mischief and cruelty to animals charges and fined $5,000-$10,000.
However, as everyone concerned awaits Paulsen’s fate, Richmond News readers chimed in on Facebook as to whether Paulsen will actually see the inside of a jail cell.
“I hope she gets the maximum sentence. She killed a family member…,” said David Fex, on Facebook.
On the same platform, Shirley Ryan said, “Throw the book at her....she deserves a long time in jail!”
And Tyler M. Lovdahl added, “Hope she gets jail time, but she won’t.”
During the sentencing hearing Wednesday in Surrey, the court heard how the six dogs — one of them, Oscar, was adopted out of the Richmond Animal Protection Society — suffered greatly before dying in the dog walker’s truck.
After leading the dog owners, pet detectives and members of the public to believe the dogs had actually been stolen from her truck while at a dog park in Langley, Paulsen broke down shortly after and admitted the dogs had died and she’d dumped them in a ditch in Abbotsford.
The Crown is also seeking a lifetime ban on owning animals and 10-year ban on caring for anyone’s animal.
“Ms. Paulsen was warned numerous times not to do what she did,” MacAulay told the court. “In addition, she’s a professional, she’s been hired to look after the animals.”
He suggested that jail time would send a message of deterence out to others.
With files from Matthew Claxton/Langley Advance & Vancouver Sun
