Cover Stories Winter 2002

Criminal Charges Filed in Racetrack-to-Research Case

St. Croix County, Wisconsin: Daniel Shonka, 49, a former kennel operator at the now-closed St. Croix Meadows dog track who illegally sold more than 1,000 greyhounds to a research lab in St. Paul, Minn., faces four counts of felony theft, three counts of felony theft by fraud, and one count of racketeering. More than 950 greyhounds died in the lab.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice filed the charges in St. Croix County Circuit Court on Friday, Dec. 28. Shonka's assistant Heidi Dierks, 30, was similarly charged. If convicted on all charges, each defendant could receive up to 85 years in prison and $80,000 in fines.

Randy Romanski, a justice department spokesman, said the 20-month investigation exposed "the deceptiveness that the individuals used to take these animals, to basically steal them from their owners, and sell them for a purpose other than what they had indicated."

The complaint alleges that Shonka received at least $374,000 by selling dogs to a private cardiac research facility from 1996 to 2000. It further alleges the dogs' owners thought the animals were still racing or had been placed in adop-tive homes.

[See GNN, Summer 2000, for the complete story and how it came to light. - Ed.] Source: Wisconsin State Journal: Andy Hall