Las Vegas Is Holding 31 Dogs as Evidence — Who Is Looking Out for Them?

31 dogs seized from Working Dogs of Nevada are currently living in kennels at The Animal Foundation under a legal hold. They cannot be adopted. They cannot be permanently rehomed.

They have to wait, because they are being treated as evidence in a criminal case that could take months or years to resolve.

Four of the original 35 seized dogs have since been reclaimed by their owners, who had left them at the facility for training. These 31 are the ones still in limbo.

Nobody is talking about this.

The two defendants, Tabitha Berube and John Johnstone, face serious animal cruelty charges and are entitled to due process. That is not in question.

What is in question is why the welfare of 31 animals who have already been removed from harm is being treated as a side effect of prosecuting two human beings.

John Johnstone has since been detained by ICE. His immigration status alone could complicate and delay proceedings significantly.

The next court date has already been pushed to June 24. Every added week is another week those dogs spend in a kennel instead of a home.

The Animal Foundation is one of the most capable shelters in the country and its staff are doing everything they can for these animals.

But The Animal Foundation is also a shelter that has repeatedly hit capacity, where hundreds of dogs compete for limited space, and where the pressure to move animals through the system is constant.

Thirty-one dogs on indefinite legal hold is not a minor administrative footnote. It is a real cost, paid in kennel space, staff time, veterinary care, and most importantly, in the dogs themselves.

Nobody is publicly accounting for who is paying for their care while the case proceeds. Nobody is publicly advocating for their individual welfare as the legal process grinds forward.

Nevada does have statutes on the books that allow courts to hold early custody hearings and transfer impounded animals before a criminal case concludes.

Under NRS 574.203, owners have five days to request a hearing and courts have 15 judicial days to decide custody.

Under NRS 574.055, courts can order seized animals rehomed or transferred without waiting for a verdict.

On paper, these tools exist. In this case, however, many of the dogs were client-owned animals dropped off for training rather than animals owned by the defendants directly, and that complicates everything.

The statutes are not written cleanly for that situation, and the result is 31 dogs sitting in kennels while lawyers work it out.

That gap is exactly what the legislature should be looking at.

Nevada has strong animal cruelty laws on paper. What it does not have is a framework that cleanly addresses animals held as evidence who were never owned by the defendants in the first place.

Other states have started to close that gap.

Connecticut and Maine have both passed Courtroom Animal Advocate Program laws, allowing courts to appoint advocates specifically for animal victims in cruelty cases.

Oregon has gone further, recognising animals as crime victims for sentencing and restitution purposes, and passing legislation that allows courts to order forfeiture of abused animals and expedite their placement into foster homes before a criminal case ends.

Nevada could learn from all of it.

The community has made clear it cares deeply about these dogs. The question is whether Nevada’s lawmakers care enough to build a system that reflects that.