Judge Toughens Bail in Pets-for-Research Case

A San Fernando Superior Court judge Friday revoked bail conditions for two San Fernando Valley residents, who face charges of tricking pet owners into giving away dogs and cats that were sold for medical research, because they were subsequently arrested in Bakersfield on suspicion of committing the same crime.

Barbara Ruggiero, 27, of Sylmar, who had been free on $5,000 bail, was returned to Los Angeles County Jail after the judge increased her bail to $150,000, Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Chasworth said.

Judge John H. Majors also issued a no-bail warrant for the arrest of Ralf Jacobsen, 27, after he failed to appear in court Friday.

Ruggiero, Jacobsen and Frederick John Spero are awaiting trial for allegedly running two kennels to obtain animals that they sold to three Southern California medical research facilities, where many of the animals later died.

Prosecutors said Jacobsen obtained animals by responding to advertisements offering free pets to those who would give them a good home, and that Ruggiero and Spero sold the adopted pets to medical laboratories.

They were each charged in March, 1989, with felony theft of animals for medical research purposes, and with conspiracy to steal animals. Their trial is scheduled to begin next week.

Chasworth said Friday that while Ruggiero and Jacobsen were out on bail and awaiting trial, they established a similar operation in Bakersfield with a kennel called the Puppy Pavillion.

They were arrested in October on suspicion of cruelty to animals, after several months of investigation by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Ruggiero and Jacobsen were operating the kennel under assumed names, authorities said.

“It was outrageous that they were doing the same thing after being released on bail in this case,” Chasworth said.

The Kern County district attorney declined to press charges on those arrests, however, because the pair already face a possible six years in prison--the maximum sentence allowed under state law for nonviolent felonies--if convicted in Los Angeles.

Chasworth said she argued for the increase in bail because she believes that Ruggiero and Jacobsen are flight risks.

If Ruggiero tries to post bail, she will have to prove to the judge that all the money she used for the bail had been obtained by legitimate means, and not from the sale of animals for animal research, Chasworth said.