September 7, 2015
SYDNEY 2015 (AFP) - The court case against actor Johnny Depp's wife Amber Heard for allegedly smuggling two dogs into Australia -- dubbed the 'war on terrier' -- was adjourned Monday without the star couple appearing.
Heard is facing two counts of knowingly importing a prohibited product in breach of the Quarantine Act and one of producing a document knowing it to be false or misleading, a Southport Magistrates Court official said.
The case caught world attention in May after the pets, Pistol and Boo, were threatened with death by Australia's Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce unless they "buggered off back to the United States".
The animals, which had allegedly travelled by private jet to Queensland, where Depp was filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales", were quickly whisked out of the country as the story hit the headlines.
Asked about the pets at a press conference in Venice, where he was speaking about his new film "Black Mass" in which he portrays a Boston mobster, Depp reportedly deadpanned on Friday: "I killed my dogs".
"And ate them under direct orders from some kind of sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia."
Under strict Australian laws designed to keep disease at bay, dogs entering from the United States must be declared and have to spend 10 days in quarantine.
Heard did not appear at Southport Magistrates Court on Monday and the matter was adjourned until November 2.
Penalties for contravening the Quarantine Act range from fines to a maximum of 10 years in prison for the worst cases.