Doggie Day Care Owner Sentenced to Probation

ROWLEY — April Bernhardt, the former owner of the Hydrant Regency dog kennel will not have to go to jail, as the result of a conviction on 40 counts of animal cruelty. But for the next three years she cannot own or possess any animals.
Judge William Martin in the Newburyport District Court said, “I would like to believe that animals are very precious to you. And I suspect this is going to hurt, because you’re not going to be able to do something that you love.”
If Bernhardt violates the terms the judge imposed, she would “face 100 years in jail,” the judge said. “And if that’s not enough motivation to put you on the straight and narrow, I don’t know what is. Good luck to you.”
Bernhardt, whose lawyer claimed she is the victim of domestic violence, turned herself in to authorities last September after Rowley police and animal control became concerned last August about the conditions of the kennel.
The officers found 38 dogs in wire crates inside a trailer. There were many crates that were too small for the dogs they were being kept in, Assistant Essex County District Attorney Meredith Underwood said.
The Hydrant Regency advertised that it offered a 5,000 square foot outdoor enclosed play area so the dogs boarded there could run and play all day.
“If your dog likes to wrestle and play, plow through snow drifts, hang out with humans, fetch ball, or just sunbathe and lay in the kiddie pools, we want your dog to do just that,” the web site said.
County prosecutors, working with Rowley police, the MSPCA and the Animal Rescue League of Boston, painted a different picture.
Police found wire crates lined up next to each other and covered with mattresses. Despite having an air conditioning unit, Underwood said the trailer’s interior temperature was 90.6 degrees.
Underwood said, “Some of those dogs had food, but none had water.” She noted that at the time of the officers’ discovery, Massachusetts was in the middle of a heat wave.
Ted Cranney, Bernhardt’s attorney, told the court that he didn’t “mean to minimize the losses that occurred” before showing a timeline of events that differed from that presented by the prosecution.
According to Cranney, when officers first visited the Hydrant Regency for “a well-being check,” officers “found not a single dog to be in distress, nor did they need any action to be taken.”