Puppy brokers found guilty of animal cruelty

Two puppy brokers in Digby County have been convicted of selling sick and malnourished animals.

Gail Benoit and Dana Bailey were found guilty Thursday in Digby provincial court of two counts of animal cruelty.

The judge also found Benoit guilty of assaulting an SPCA special constable.

"The SPCA is quite happy with the guilty charges," Sean Kelly, chair of the SPCA's provincial investigation committee, told CBC News.

Benoit and Bailey were charged after the SPCA seized 10 puppies from their Digby County home in the fall of 2007.

The animal-protection group was responding to a complaint about sick puppies being sold in a parking lot in the Truro area.

Benoit and Bailey will be sentenced in March.

They both face another set of cruelty charges for allegedly selling puppies infected with the parvovirus last summer.

"There are, of course, more charges pending at this point in time," said Kelly. "We're looking for the same outcome."

Kelly said the SPCA would like to see the couple banned from owning or selling animals.