Man pleads innocent to cruelty

A retired Kalispell doctor accused of abandoning 12 puppies - 10 of them dead - in the trash pleaded innocent Thursday to aggravated cruelty to animals.

John L. Heine, 74, entered a not-guilty plea to the felony charge during his arraignment in Flathead County District Court.

The puppies were found the afternoon of Aug. 21, along with common household trash, in a gray plastic garbage bag at the Somers green-box site.

After hearing faint squeaks coming from inside one of the trash containers, a regular salvager opened the garbage bag and discovered the sodden bodies of 10 puppies. They had been drowned in a bucket, according to investigative reports.

Heine has said he tried to kill all the puppies because he feared they would contract parvovirus, which infected his Airport Road kennel.

The black-and-white, German wirehaired pointer puppies were less than a day old when they were abandoned.

The two surviving pups were taken to the Flathead County Animal Shelter before being adopted.

The Humane Society of the United States has called for full prosecution of Heine.

"Considering the cruelty of the alleged act, I urge you to fully prosecute this case as the evidence warrants and to settle for nothing less, upon any conviction, than meaningful jail time and a ban on animal ownership," Dale Bartlett, the society's deputy manager of animal cruelty issues, wrote in a letter to Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan.

"We are concerned about this case not only for its extreme callous cruelty behind the alleged act, but also because Mr. Heine, as a dog breeder, has custody over many dogs," Bartlett wrote.

Heine said last month he currently owns or was training 12 other dogs.

A retired obstetrician from Kalispell, Heine said the abandoned puppies were an unwanted litter, most likely fathered by a stray.

He also said he didn't know drowning animals was illegal.

Heine said he killed or attempted to kill the puppies because of the possibility they would catch parvovirus, a viral disorder often fatal to canines. He had imported from Texas two puppies that had the disease, contaminating his kennel, he said. Those puppies later died.

Heine has been retired from medicine for about five years, but has trained dogs for more than 40 years.

His trial is scheduled for the February jury term. If convicted, Heine faces up to two years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com