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Wildlife activist guilty of animal cruelty
By RYAN MEEHAN TAMPA -- The cougar named Old Man was 16 years old with bad legs and pancreatitis when he was euthanized last year. But a jury decided Thursday that he had been tortured as well. Bert Wahl, once one of the Tampa Bay area's best-known wildlife activists, was found guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty Thursday, after jurors deliberated for little more than an hour. He faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $5,000 fine. Prosecutors said Wahl abused the cougar for an hour and a half on Nov. 4, and the animal was euthanized a few days later. The prosecutors listed the accusations against Wahl in thick black marker for the jury Thursday. The list said he choked the cougar; dragged the cougar; dragged the cougar by a choker chain; punched the cougar; kicked the cougar; hit the cougar with a shoe; and jammed a mop and broom handle down the cougar's throat. "Maybe the Bucs lost the previous weekend and he was mad. Maybe he just lost his cool for those five days. It does not matter," said prosecutor Martin Hernandez. "All the state has to do is prove he did one of the listed things," state prosecutor Jim Shoemaker added. Wahl, 46, operated Wildlife Rescue Inc. for almost 20 years from a house and yard in Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood. He visited schools with his animals and appeared in the media when he rescued critters. But over the past several years, he has gotten in trouble for mistreating the animals he was supposedly saving. In 1997, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission tried to take away Wahl's license for rehabilitation and exhibition on the grounds that he mistreated his animals. In 2000, the state accused him of mishandling more than two dozen animals in his care. In the most recent case, Wahl was housing the cougar named Old Man at the Tampa residence of wildlife rehabilitation activist Sherie Frost. Frost told jurors in this week's trial that on Nov. 4 she saw Wahl twisting the cat's ear so badly that it required stitches. Days later, she said, she saw Wahl punching the cat in the face, dragging it 25 feet and kicking it. Public defender Mark Gilman, in closing arguments, tried to discredit Sherie Frost and her husband, Simeon Frost. Gilman said they were felons and they couldn't be trusted. Mrs. Frost's account didn't make sense, he said. If she saw Wahl brutally beating the cougar for more than an hour and a half last November, why didn't she call the police? "I was afraid," she said outside the courtroom after the trial. After the trial, Wahl exited the courtroom with family members. He wouldn't comment on the verdict. "I'd love to, but they won't let me," he said, directing inquiries to John Skye, spokesman for the public defender's office. Wahl's sentencing hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today.
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From the Times North of Tampa City Times |
