RAVENNA, Ohio — The operator of a nonprofit dog rescue has been indicted on 146 counts of cruelty to companion animals, a fifth-degree felony, according to court records from Portage County Common Pleas Court.
68-year-old Barbara Wible's indictment marks the largest animal cruelty indictment in the state, according to Amy Beichler, the executive director of PAWS Ohio.
The indictment comes after 146 dogs were found dead at Wible's Mantua home on June 16. Details of the case first surfaced last month when the Portage Animal Protective League’s Humane Investigations Department executed a search warrant at the home after receiving a tip that an animal cruelty charge was pending in another jurisdiction against the homeowner.
The indictments allege that Wible "knowingly caused serious physical harm to 146 companion animals, deprived those companion animals of necessary sustenance and confined the companion animals without supplying sufficient quantities of food and water."
“Many of the dogs were found confined within their crates,” according to the Portage Animal Protective League.
Wible, who is the operator of Canine Lifeline Inc., a nonprofit dog rescue, previously faced a judge virtually from the hospital on July 3 for an arraignment hearing.
“I had more than three pulmonary blood clots last week, so I was in the ICU for three days. So I have not even really had a chance to review these charges," she told the judge when asked how she wished to plea. "I haven’t had a chance to speak to anybody about them.”
Wible has also been indicted in Cuyahoga County “for severely neglecting 36 dogs at her Parma residence,” which the prosecutor’s office says resulted in the deaths of 13 dogs. She is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 4 in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.
An arraignment hearing in the Portage County Common Pleas Court will be scheduled for a later date.
3News' Ryan Haidet contributed to this report.
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