Some stories just won’t die, but when Johnny Depp’s two Yorkshire Terriers made it safely out of Australia, it looked like that story had finally kicked the bucket. But it turns out that Australia is really mad about the whole thing, so much so that Depp could wind up in prison for 10 years and face a hefty fine.
It all sounds like nasty rhetoric to get headlines, but bringing in animals illegally into Australia is a serious offense. Earlier this month, when Depp took his dogs Pistol and Boo into the country while shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Minister of Agriculture Barnaby Jones even threatened to have them euthanized. On May 15, he said that the dogs had left, which appeared to be the end of the discussion.
However, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the dogs were brought up during a Senate committee hearing in Canberra. Government officials revealed that Depp could get a 10-year prison sentence and a $340,000 fine. Even his pilot could face up to two years in prison for bringing the dogs in illegally.
Joyce and other Agriculture Ministry staffers took questions from politicians, who all agreed that this was a very serious problem. How did these dogs get in without being checked in? That is still under investigation.
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