Canadian woman facing two years jailtime for animal cruelty, perjury, and identity fraud

By Derek J. Anderson, Globe Correspondent

She used the name Linda Snow, the identity of a young girl who died decades earlier on the North Shore , to authorities who arrested and charged her with animal cruelty in 2008 for running an unsafe dog-breeding operation out of a home in Randolph.

Then after pleading guilty, she fled probation and adopted another name, Mary Howard, to start anew in Connecticut, authorities said.

Her real name is Gloria Marriott, a 64-year native of Canada, and she now faces two years in prison after pleading guilty in Norfolk Superior Court Tuesday to a slew of additional charges, including perjury and identity fraud, according to the Norfolk district attorney’s office. Marriott also faces five years of probation and must pay about $74,000 to the Animal Rescue League of Boston, which cared for the dogs she abused, and to the owner of the Randolph home she had rented.

Authorities said she operated a puppy mill, raising young dogs in horrific conditions that ultimately required dozens of the animals to receive medical attention.

“The false identities and the lies are an odd sideshow, but it is the underlying case that is most disturbing,” said Michael W. Morrissey, the Norfolk district attorney. “This was a terrible example of animal cruelty. Eighty-nine dogs had to be rescued from deplorable conditions, many of them malnourished, diseased, and literally caked in filth. She showed no interest in the chance at community rehabilitation that the court offered her in 2008, and now she is deservedly going to jail.”

In 2008, Marriott, under the name Linda Snow, owned a pet store, Missy’s Puppyland on Park Street in Stoughton, while also running the breeding operation out of a house she rented in Randolph. Morrissey’s office said the Randolph home was “severely damaged with animal filth.”

After fleeing Massachusetts, Marriott was again charged with animal cruelty for an unrelated case in Connecticut and was serving time there when indicted for the additional perjury charges in Norfolk County.

“Perhaps most important is that all of the dogs that have been in her control have since been made safe,” Morrissey said.