Sheep abduction case back in court at the end of the month

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

by SUSAN MANN

One of four people facing charges in connection with the abduction of sheep from a Northumberland County farm under quarrantine appeared in court this week and is scheduled to return to court later this month.

Robert Pinnell of Durham County appeared in the Ontario Court of Justice, Cobourg court on Wednesday. His next appearance is March 27. That’s the same date three others charged with him are scheduled to come to court again. They are: Linda Frances (Montana) Jones of Northumberland County, Michael Schmidt of Grey County, and Suzanne Atkinson of Northumberland County.

All four are charged with: conspiracy to commit obstruction of a Canadian Food Inspection Agency officer, transporting or causing to transport an animal under quarantine and conspiracy to defraud the public of a service over $5,000 under the Criminal Code, obstructing a CFIA inspection and transporting or causing to transport an animal under quarantine under the Health of Animals Act and Regulation. Jones also faces another charge of obstructing a CFIA inspector under the Health of Animals Act. Pinnell also faces a charge of attempting to obstruct justice and another for obstructing a public officer, both under the Criminal Code.

In a Dec. 5, 2012 press release, the CFIA said four people were charged following an investigation after 31 Shropshire sheep were removed from a federally quarantined farm around April 2, 2012. The farm was suspected of being contaminated with scrapie, a fatal transmissible neurological disease of sheep and goats. Scrapie doesn’t pose a human health risk. The charges were laid in the Ontario Court of Justice in Cobourg on Dec. 4, 2012. BF