
 
 Josh Elliott, CTVNews.ca 
 
 
 
 
 
 A British Columbia dog walker has been charged with animal cruelty after six dogs allegedly died in her care last May. 
 
 Emma Paulsen of Langley, B.C. faces five animal cruelty-related charges and one charge of public mischief, according to the British Columbia SPCA. 
 
 Paulsen first reported the six dogs stolen on May 13. She said someone took them from the cab of her vehicle at a Langley dog park while she left to use the washroom. The dogs' bodies were found in a ditch in the Fraser Valley a week later during a community-led search effort. 
 
 According to the Langley RCMP, the dogs died in in the back of the truck from heat stroke the same day Paulsen reported them stolen. 
 
 The temperature rose as high as 25 C on the day the dogs died. 
 
 Jennifer Meyers, whose dog Buddy was among the six that died, said she just wants justice for her pet. 
 
 "I know they suffered, and that's the part that, to this day, I still get sad about," she told CTV News. "I don't think that'll ever go away." 
 
 It's not yet known when Paulsen will make her first court appearance. 
 
 With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Vancouver ||||| METRO VANCOUVER -- The dog walker who told police that dogs in her care were stolen from the back of her truck before they were later found dead in a ditch in Abbotsford has been charged with animal cruelty and public mischief. 
 
 Emma Paulsen, of Delta, faces four charges under the Criminal Code, including killing or injuring an animal and causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal, each carrying a maximum prison term of five years, as well as failing to provide for an animal, punishable by up to two years in prison, and reporting an offence when it was not committed, which carries a five-year maximum sentence. 
 
 Paulsen also faces two counts of causing an animal to continue to be in distress, charges that carry, on conviction, fines of up to $75,000 and prison terms of up to two years. 
 
 The dog walker had six dogs in her care, including one of her own, on May 13, a day that reached temperatures as high as 25 C. 
 
 Necropsies on the dogs indicated they died of heat stroke, according to the SPCA. 
 
 The dog walker initially reported the animals were stolen when she left them unattended while using a public washroom in a Langley dog park. 
 
 With a file from Kim Pemberton 
 
 mrobinson@vancouversun.com 
 
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 Emma Paulsen, the dog walker alleged to have dumped the bodies of six dogs in a ditch in Abbotsford, B.C., has been charged with six animal cruelty-related counts in connection with their deaths. 
 
 On Sunday, the B.C. SPCA said that Paulsen has been charged under the Criminal Code with killing or injuring an animal, causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal, failing to provide the necessities of life to an animal and falsely reporting an offence. 
 
 Animal cruelty officer Marcie Moriarty said Paulsen is also facing two counts of causing an animal to continue to be under distress under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, a charge Moriarty said is precedent-setting because it has never been laid before in B.C. 
 
 "It's a preventative section — a duty of care that animal owners owe to pets and so we're quite excited about these charges and we'll wait to see what happens in court," she said. 
 
 When the dogs first went missing Paulsen initially reported they had been stolen from the back of her pickup truck. 
 
 She told police and the dogs' owners that she left her vehicle to use the washroom at a Langley dog park, and when she returned the dogs were gone. 
 
 That sparked a search by the dogs' owners and the Petsearchers.com agency, which was initially hired by the dog owners and Paulsen to find the missing pets. 
 
 Langley RCMP said in May that the animals apparently died while enclosed in Paulsen's vehicle, while it was parked in Richmond. 
 
 The B.C. SPCA took over the investigation shortly afterwards. ||||| VANCOUVER — Langley dog walker Emma Paulsen has been charged with six offences under the Criminal Code of Canada and the BC Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act after allegedly leaving six dogs in the back of her truck, where they all died from apparent heatstroke. 
 
 “This is a situation which is precedent setting. We are very pleased at Crown’s decision to approve charges under pretty much every single possible section of animal cruelty that could have been in this particular case,” Marcie Moriarty of the SPCA, told Global News. 
 
 The charges under the Criminal Code include killing or injuring an animal, causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal, failing to provide adequate care to the dogs and mischief. The Crown also invoked a newer preventative section of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act – enacted in 2012 – which makes it an offence to fail to provide adequate care to an animal. 
 
 Moriarty said a case of this scope – both in terms of the charges and the type tragedy – hasn’t been seen before in Canada. 
 
 Global News reported previously that Paulsen had apparently left the six animals under her care in the back of her truck in May of this year, when she went into a store to run an errand. When she returned, they had all died. Paulsen then panicked and allegedly concocted a story about the dogs being stolen, which led to an almost week-long search for the animals. 
 
 “It’s a catastrophic tragedy she will regret for the rest of her life,” Paulsen’s mother told Global News earlier this year. 
 
 For the dogs’ owners, the news of the charges is what they’ve been waiting to hear. “It’s good news that justice will be served against her for what she put everybody through,” Amber Williams, an owner of one of the dogs, told Global News. 
 
 “I don’t think it really gets any easier because they suffered and that’s the part I don’t think I’ll ever get past,” said Jennifer Myers, who owned Buddy. 
 
 If convicted, Paulsen faces up to five years in jail, a fine of $75,000 and a lifetime ban on owning animals. 
 
 –With files from Kristen Robinson and Paula Baker. 
 
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– In May, a Canadian dog walker claimed six dogs in her care were stolen from her truck at a dog park in Vancouver—the dogs were found in a ditch a week later. CBC now reports that Emma Paulsen has been charged with dumping the dogs in the ditch herself after they died in her truck; a necropsy confirmed heatstroke, adds the Vancouver Sun. "I know they suffered, and that's the part that, to this day, I still get sad about," one owner, whose dog Buddy died, tells CTV News. Paulsen now faces six "charges under pretty much every single possible section of animal cruelty that could have been in this particular case," an SPCA official tells the Global News, including two counts of causing an animal to continue to be in distress—which has never been charged in British Columbia. She could face jail time and stiff penalties; the distress charges carry a $75,000 fine each.