The Working Dogs of Nevada case was supposed to be a test of whether Nevada’s animal cruelty laws had teeth.
After months of court dates, public outrage, and 31 dogs held in legal limbo at The Animal Foundation, we now have our answer. They do not.
John Johnstone, the trainer caught on surveillance video dragging and kicking dogs in his care, is in Scotland. He was deported in early May.
The court issued a bench warrant, which means he would face arrest if he returns — but he is currently beyond the reach of Nevada courts.
Originally charged with four felony counts of animal cruelty, Johnstone’s cases effectively ended with his deportation. The charges could not proceed against a man no longer in the country.
Tabitha Berube, who police say witnessed the abuse and did nothing to stop it, walked out of this with no conviction. The Clark County District Attorney cited “insufficient evidence.”
The case against her was dismissed before trial.
We understand that prosecutors work within the constraints of what evidence can support. We are not suggesting the DA acted improperly. But the outcome is still a failure, and it is worth saying that plainly.
A facility that called itself a dog rehabilitation center was caught on video abusing the animals in its care. Thirty-five dogs were seized.
Thirty-one of them spent months at The Animal Foundation unable to be adopted or rehomed because the law required they be treated as evidence.
They waited, caged and in limbo, while a case that started with video documentation fell apart in court.
With the charges dropped and the case effectively stalled, the evidentiary hold on the dogs should now be lifted.
That is the one piece of good news to come out of June 24. But the people responsible for putting them through this? One is overseas and unreachable. The other walked free.
Nevada passed Reba’s Law to strengthen animal abuse penalties.
Advocates who have fought for years to make animal cruelty a prosecutable offense watched this case, believed the video evidence would hold, and expected the system to work.
John Waudby of Nevada Animal Advocates said what many were thinking when he called the outcome devastating and said Berube “knew what was going on.”
He is not wrong.
And the frustration is understandable, especially given what we wrote in March about a DA’s office that has long treated animal cruelty as a category of crime not worth fighting for.
If there is a lesson here, it may be procedural: Nevada needs clearer legal mechanisms to separate the welfare of dogs from the fate of their abusers.
Thirty-one dogs should not have spent months waiting for humans to sort out a case that ultimately went nowhere.
As we asked when this case was still unresolved, who is looking out for them while the courts take their time? The answer, it turns out, was no one with any power to act.
The Working Dogs of Nevada case also exposed how little regulation exists around dog trainers in Nevada.
Nevada does not require dog trainers to hold any specific license or credentials.
While Las Vegas does require a professional animal-handler permit for commercial facilities, oversight focuses on business and premises rather than the qualifications of individual trainers.
Anyone can market themselves as a trainer and open a dog-training operation if they secure basic business paperwork.
That problem did not get solved when this case collapsed. It got worse, because the one mechanism available to hold abusers accountable just failed in full public view.
We will keep covering how animal welfare law develops in Nevada. We hope lawmakers and prosecutors are paying attention to how this one ended.
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