PORTAGE COUNTY, Ohio — The operator of a nonprofit dog rescue facing 146 felony charges of animal cruelty was be arraigned in a Portage County courtroom on Tuesday morning.
Last week, 68-year-old Barbara Wible was indicted on 146 fifth-degree felony charges of animal cruelty after 146 dead dogs were allegedly found in her Mantua home on June 16. According to PAWS Ohio executive director Amy Beichler, the indictment marks the largest animal cruelty case in the state's history.
Wible appeared via video at Tuesday's arraignment, where she entered a not guilty plea. She was issued a $100,000 personal cognizance bond and was ordered not to own any animals. A jury trial was set for Oct. 24 at 9 a.m.
The dogs were discovered after the Portage Animal Protective League’s Humane Investigations Department executed a search warrant at the home after receiving a tip that an animal cruelty charge was pending in another jurisdiction against the homeowner.
The indictments allege that Wible "knowingly caused serious physical harm to 146 companion animals, deprived those companion animals of necessary sustenance and confined the companion animals without supplying sufficient quantities of food and water."
“Many of the dogs were found confined within their crates,” according to the Portage Animal Protective League.
Wible, who is the operator of Canine Lifeline Inc., a nonprofit dog rescue, previously faced a judge virtually from the hospital on July 3 for an arraignment hearing.
“I had more than three pulmonary blood clots last week, so I was in the ICU for three days. So I have not even really had a chance to review these charges," she told the judge when asked how she wished to plea. "I haven’t had a chance to speak to anybody about them.”
Wible has also been indicted in Cuyahoga County “for severely neglecting 36 dogs at her Parma residence,” which the prosecutor’s office says resulted in the deaths of 13 dogs. She is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 4 in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.