Animal Abuse Charges: Former Pet Store Owner To Appear In Court

BRIGHTON, CO – A former Brighton pet store owner will appear Monday in the 17th Judicial Court next week on 36 felony counts of animal cruelty. Charges were filed in Adams County in Sep. 2017 against Lynn Denise Kubic former co-owner of Jurassic Park pet store in Thornton, after a search warrant revealed more than 2,000 animals, at least 50 dead, in poor living conditions at their Brighton home. The couple were on probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor animal cruelty charges in 2016.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent an online petition with more than 50,000 signatures to 17th Judicial District Attorney Dave Young, asking him to prohibit her from future contact with animals and asking for "vigorous prosecution."

"Nothing short of jail time and a lifelong ban on contact with animals will stop these serial abusers from warehousing and neglecting animals in filth," says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch, in a press statement. "PETA is calling on the district attorney's office to vigorously prosecute this case before any more animals suffer and die in Lynn Kubic's hands."

The charges followed a raid on the Kubic's unincorporated Adams Co. home, where investigators from Adams county and the Colorado Department of Agriculture found a basement filled with more than 2,000 animals, including more than 500 live hedgehogs, sugar gliders, snakes, and other reptiles, reports said. Investigators found dead hedgehogs and snakes, and rodents in filthy tubs in stacked in rows of shelving units.

In September, PETA released a video of footage released under the Colorado Open Records Act of inspections of the Kubic's home.

The Kubics did not immediately return messages left by Patch. But Kenneth Kubic told Denver7,

"You can tell PETA I was absolved of those 36 charges."

Denver7 reported that Kenneth Kubic had 36 felony counts dismissedin exchange for a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief.

Related: WATCH: Exotic Pet Store Owners' Home Raided, 2,000 Animals Found

Image via Shutterstock

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