Plambeck found guilty on 11 of 12 charges of animal cruelty in Sherrard

Sharon Wren
·2 min read
10
Plambeck found guilty on 11 of 12 charges of animal cruelty in Sherrard

A Sherrard woman accused of hoarding dogs has been found guilty of animal cruelty.

Prosecutors say Karen Plambeck mistreated almost 200 dogs who were found in poor living conditions and bad health almost two years ago.

Earlier, Plambeck pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty. Judge Mathew Durbin announced his verdict Wednesday afternoon in Mercer County Court. Our Quad Cities was in the courtroom for the trial and for the reading of the verdict.

“People have to know you can’t treat dogs like this,” said Denise and Rich Potter, collie rescue dog owners. “People are going to step in, and there are going to be consequences.”

Dog owners who have rescued collies taken from Karen Plambeck’s property let their voices be heard after the verdict was announced.

“When you hear about the conditions they were in, you just can’t imagine,” the Potters said.

Durbin read his verdict to Plambeck along with other people in the courtroom: He found Plambeck guilty on 11 of 12 counts of animal cruelty.

“The evidence of guilt in this case is overwhelming,” Durbin said. “The court found that the state’s witnesses were all credible in their testimony, which is corroborated by other witness testimony and by the entered exhibits.”

Photos of collies in a Sherrard kennel were shown during the Mercer County trial of a woman accused of hoarding dogs. (Jackson Rozinsky)
Photos of collies in a Sherrard kennel were shown during the Mercer County trial of a woman accused of hoarding dogs. (Jackson Rozinsky)

Durbin said he based his verdict on two similar Illinois animal cruelty cases from 2015 and 2020.

“At her specific request, (Plambeck) was the caretaker,” Durbin said. “She was responsible for all of these animals.”

As a sentencing date is planned for Plambeck, dog owners involved with the case gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate the verdict. A representative from a collie rescue, who testified in the trial, said the evidence was clear that Plambeck was guilty.

“There was a lot of time standing around in front of probably the only nice pen,” said Sarah Rebernick, vice president for the Minnesota-Wisconsin Collie Rescue. “As you went further into the property, it was disgusting and vile.”

Rebernick says the dogs on the property will always be affected by what happened.

“These dogs are going to suffer for the rest of their lives from this treatment – psychologically, many of them physically,” she said. “So no, you can never make this right, but I hope that they would make sure that she never has the care of another animal as long as she lives.”

Durbin said the overwhelming amount of evidence helped him reach his verdict. A sentencing hearing will be held June 10 in Mercer County Court.

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