Jonathan Bullington, Chicago Tribune –
CHICAGO – The 43 puppies found by police inside a van parked in the Little Village neighborhood earlier this month could be returned to the two men who were sleeping in the van when officers showed up.
A Cook County Circuit Court judge on Thursday denied a petition to forfeit the dogs, said Lisa Gordon, spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The judge’s decision means the dogs could be returned to Travis Wester, 22, and Larry Subject, 49, both of Iowa.
The two men still face misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals and failing to meet animal owner duties.
On Feb. 7, police approached a suspicious vehicle parked in the 2500 block of West Cermak Road and found the dogs in cramped containers without adequate food or water, authorities said.
Wester and Subject had driven the puppies to Chicago from an Iowa puppy mill, prosecutors said.
The animals, some as young as 6 to 8 weeks and varied in breed, were bound for pet stores in Chicago and New York, according to Cherie Travis, executive director of Chicago’s Commission on Animal Care and Control.
Travis said Friday that the judge ordered the city to prepare a bill for care of the puppies to be presented to Wester and Subject at their next hearing in March.
