3 Get Prison in Sale of Pets for Research
Calling her the “personification of evil,” a San Fernando Superior Court judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Sun Valley kennel operator to nearly six years in prison for tricking dog and cat owners into giving away their pets and then selling them for medical research.
Judge David M. Schacter sentenced Barbara Ann Ruggiero, 28, to five years and eight months in state prison in what prosecutors and animal rights activists said was one of the first successful felony prosecutions in the country involving animal theft charges.
Ruggiero’s two accomplices received lesser prison terms. Frederick John Spero, 46, was sentenced to five years in state prison, and Ralf Jacobsen, 28, was sentenced to three years. All three were denied bail pending an appeal of the case.
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