Activist gets jail time for cruelty

Convicted of torturing a cougar, animal activist Bert Wahl was sentenced to nine months in jail. He also must pay a $5,000 fine.

By RYAN MEEHAN
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 29, 2002

TAMPA -- At a sentencing hearing Friday for a well-known animal activist convicted of cruelty to a cougar, there was an unexpected moment of silence.

"Do you love animals?" a prosecutor had asked Bert Wahl.

For nearly 20 seconds, Wahl said nothing. Then he questioned the use of the word love. He had dealt with thousands of animals and took a liking to most, he said, but hadn't loved them all personally.

But with Old Man, the cougar he was convicted of torturing, it was different, he said.

"I loved that cat," Wahl told the judge.

Then the judge sentenced him to nine months in the county jail, three months shy of the maximum for the misdemeanor animal cruelty charge.

"When (the cougar) needed you the most, you were not there for him," County Judge Nick Nazaretian told Wahl. "You were not there."

He also ordered Wahl to pay a $5,000 fine and serve 24 hours of community service.

A day earlier, a jury heard allegations that Wahl abused the cougar in November, a few days before Old Man was euthanized. Prosecutors said the cougar, which was 16 and suffered from pancreatitis, was dragged, punched, kicked and hit with a shoe and had a mop and broom handle jammed down its throat.

Even after Friday's 21/2-hour sentencing hearing, Wahl's supporters were wrestling with the guilty verdict.

The jury "made a mistake," said Gibbs Wilson, a Tampa businessman and Wahl's friend. "It happens every once in a while."

One of nine witnesses to testify on Wahl's behalf at the sentencing, Wilson told the judge the evidence didn't make sense. He and other Wahl supporters said the case was part of a vendetta by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee against Wahl

"I don't believe this is cruelty to animals," Wilson said. "I believe Fish and Wildlife are guilty of cruelty to a human."

Verity Mathews told the judge that Wahl worked with children, and that Wahl and the cougar had been more tightly bonded than most humans. Wahl didn't abuse the animal, because if he had, "I would have taken this and brained him myself with it," she said, brandishing her cane.

Prosecutor Jim Shoemaker called only one witness Friday: a Florida Fish and Wildlife investigator who said he has been following Wahl since the early 1980s. He said Wahl began breaking the law in the early 1990s. Shoemaker spent nearly an hour telling the story of Wahl's past, citing his convictions for animal-related infractions.

"The (defense) witnesses may know the Dr. Jekyll," Shoemaker told the judge. "But before you stands Mr. Hyde."

Shoemaker cited a June 2000 report from Florida Fish and Wildlife describing the condition of property Wahl owned in Tampa. Inside, Shoemaker said, investigators found dead and decomposing rats, snakes and turtles. Two live alligators were found in murky, undersized aquariums and ferrets and a Rottweiler were also discovered on the dilapidated premises.

Wahl said the officer who filed the report was widely known to be a non-credible source and the description of the house was exaggerated.

The judge praised Wahl for services he provided the community but said he saw something deeper in the case of the cougar.

"When that cougar started going downhill, getting sicker and passing away, I think some of you started passing away, too," Nazaretian said. "But when he needed you most, I think you disregarded him. And I think it went beyond just neglect."

-- Ryan Meehan can be reached at 226-3354 or meehan@sptimes.com.

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