Woman jailed on new charge

A woman whose case garnered widespread attention when a state judge suggested she shoot her dogs spent a second night in jail on an unrelated charge.

At a Tuesday afternoon hearing, 3rd District Judge Stephen Henriod apologized for his comments and suspended the six-month sentence he imposed the day before when Janet Lane appeared in court in continuing violation of the law.

Lane was charged last fall with having eight dogs at her Herriman home — six more than the city's two dog ordinance. When she appeared in court Monday, Lane acknowledged still having seven animals, three of which were in her parked car.

Henriod suspended 179 days of the original 180-day sentence when he learned the excess dogs had been taken to the Humane Society. However, Lane was not released Tuesday as expected because of an arrest warrant on an unrelated charge of class A misdemeanor criminal mischief.

According to court documents, two years ago, Lane picked up a roaming dog and took it to a downtown veterinarian to be neutered. She then dropped off the animal, an American Kennel Club-registered retriever, at Salt Lake County Animal Services. When the owner picked up his pet, he questioned why it had been altered through surgery.

Lane, 45, pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charge Wednesday morning.

Henriod's comments in Lane's original case have generated an outcry among animal lovers. The court has received a handful of telephone calls from people upset with the judge's statement that Lane should have killed five of the dogs to come into compliance with the law, court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said Wednesday.

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