Bullmarket French Bulldog Breeders

Controversy Mars French Bulldog Group Win at Westminster

Bru showing at Wesminster

Bru showing at Wesminster, with handler Perry Payson

Bru (Ch Robobull Fabelhaft I’m on Fire) broke records by winning a non sporting group first at Monday night’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show, but it’s one of his co owners who is currently making headlines.

Bru’s win has been tarnished by revelations that his co owner, Marion Hulick, was involved in the notorious “Horse Murder” scandal of the Nineties.

From the New York Post

She’s known to Westminster Dog Show fans for her prized French bulldog — and to the equine set for her heinous role in the slaying of a valuable horse for insurance money.

Marion Hulick, 75, proudly watched as her adorable canine, I’m On Fire, made history at the Madison Square Garden dog competition Monday night, becoming the first of his breed to score top honors in the Non-Sporting Group.

But some onlookers said they were sickened after realizing that Hulick is the former horse trainer who helped a low-life, animal hit man kill one of her charges in the Putnam Country town of Brewster 20 years ago at the behest of her boss, cellphone heir George Lindemann Jr.

“I guarantee that if Michael Vick walked into the Westminster Dog Show, he would be chased out. And yet, there’s somebody famous for killing horses and everybody is smiling and clapping,” said a former local groom, referring to NFL star Vick, who did time for running a dogfighting club.

Witnesses at Hulick’s trial said she met with the killer, Tommy Burns, offering him a $35,000 cut of the $250,000insurance money to kill the show animal, Charisma, on Dec. 15, 1990. She led Burns to the horse’s stall, one witness recalled.

Burns then attached a metal clip to the horse’s ear and another to his hindquarters and plugged a wire from them to an outlet, electrocuting him.

Hulick landed a 21-month sentence for her role. She served six months in federal prison. Burns and Lindemann also were convicted and served time.

Last night at the dog show, she called the whole ordeal “a mistake of a young person I was working for.”

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/the_lady_is_champ_and_horse_killer_5Bn6EEtjS0KliQd4nuG8uJ#ixzz0fuwJldWB

On various French Bulldog discussion lists, friends and acquaintances of Marion’s have come forward to defend her as a good woman who did a bad thing, but regrets it. Marion’s own words paint the picture of a woman who was forced into an activity against her will. Court transcripts, however, paint a more chilling picture.

Ward told him to call “Cellular Farms,” the horse farm of the Lindemann family, and to speak to Marion Hulick, Lindemann’s horse trainer and a co-defen- dant in this action. Two sequential calls were then made by Burns to Hulick at Cellular Farms.

Hulick told Burns that “they had a horse which needed to be killed at their farm.” One of Ward’s employees drove Burns to Cellular Farms at around 4:00 p.m. where he was taken directly to Hulick’s apartment. In the apart- ment, Burns met Gerald Shepard, an acquaintance who was inquiring about a position at Cellular Farms. Out- side of Shepard’s hearing, Hulick told Burns that the killing had to be completed that day because “George” wanted it done while he was in Asia and because Charisma was scheduled to travel to Florida the next day. Hulick told Burns that the amount of the insurance policy was $250,000 and Burns demanded ten percent of the proceeds in ex- change for the killing. Hulick responded that “George” would pay whatever it took.

Burns, Hulick and Shepard then drove to a remote area of the farm so that Hulick could point out a back road by which Burns could enter the premises that night. The three then went to the stable area. To indicate which horse was to be killed, Hulick entered the stall of only one horse, whose name plate read “Charisma.” Prior to Burns’ departure, Hulick assured him that she would see to it that the staff was out that night and that she would lock up the dogs so that his presence would not be de- tected.

There’s a big difference between being forced, unwilling, into a crime you have no taste for, and voluntarily offering to lock up the dogs so that no one hears the screams of a horse being electrocuted.

The black mark that this paints across our breed, and across the well deserved glory of Bru’s win, has been damaging to the reputations of not just the parties involved, but to our breed as a whole.

I can’t see it blowing over any time soon.

18 replies
  1. one for the horse
    one for the horse says:

    What I see is the comment she made that it was “a mistake made by a young person”. No remorse, no apology.
    She knew what she did was not only criminal, it was despicable. There are no extenuating circumstances for this…it was a murder for profit. I have known about this for a very long time can only say this…birds of a feather smell the same.
    Read the book “Hot Blood”, folks.

    • frogdogz
      frogdogz says:

      Shirley, why does askimet hate you so much? Did you piss it off somehow? Every time you comment, it locks you away in spam purgatory, with the viagra salesmen and the tranny porn peddlars.

      I still luv ya, though!

      Back on topic: people (read: Frenchie owners who are friends with Ms. Hulick) keep making comments about how “She was younger then, and she made a mistake. She’s different person now”. Which, you know, I could buy if she’d done this when she was nineteen – but she was SIXTY. If that doesn’t define ‘grown up and able to make your own decisions’, what age does?

  2. Amanda
    Amanda says:

    Found out about this controversy today at a dog show and was horrified. Got home and searched the web for more information and found your blog. Thanks for exposing these shady people and their shady deals. We would be honored if you would visit our website http://www.faithfulfrenchies.com which promotes Frenchies and Junior Handling. Thanks!

  3. Chris
    Chris says:

    Dont you all think your being a little unfair? I notice how no-one complained about this until the dog took breed and a group 1. The woman in question has backed this dog for over a year…..

    • frogdogz
      frogdogz says:

      A lot of people didn’t know about it until just recently, and a lot of the people who DID know about it earlier were apparently afraid to say anything (I’m not sure why).

    • frogdogz
      frogdogz says:

      Most of us have that clause – I do, and so do most of the people I know. I also use my trusty friend Google before I sell a puppy to anyone… amazing what you can find out with it. A few times, someone has contacted me claiming to own no other dogs, and a simple google search pulls up their ownership info on two or three other dogs that they apparently ‘forgot’ they owned.

      • Jenniferj
        Jenniferj says:

        I love teh Google. I do names, phone numbers and email. They also have to provide me with a veterinarian contact if they have previously had pets.

        I then contact both the local breed club Sec and the local or regional rescue reps. Word on some folks does get around.

        I had one inquiry who turned out to run a puppymill under his parents name, local rescue knew the family well.

        Another “nice young family” turned out to be a front for a broker. They acquired dogs for several South American breeder/collectors, one of whom I’d already told to go pound sand. Google found a buyer beware alert a breeder in another breed had on them.

        I breed very infrequently. Pets are going to homes where most will be altered by the owners choice and according to my contract. The biggest headache is getting them to wait! I reserve the right to reclaim any dog if the owners have misrepresented themselves, including lying about animal cruelty. Possibly hard to enforce but it’s in there.

        For the past few years I have only placed dogs for show or breeding with people I know. I’ve been lucky that the right homes have been there. I would place a dog with a newbie if they wanted to show, but I’ll be tweaking my contract and having the lawyer in the family vet it to make it more airtight. I do not generally try to control who shows the dog and I have only required a puppy back once before, but I want anything from my breeding to be health screened and titled in some discipline before reproduction is considered.

  4. my ramble
    my ramble says:

    Lindemann v. AHSA
    Index No.: 124754/94
    SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK, NEW YORK COUNTY
    December 1, 1994

    It was claimed that plaintiffs’ horse, Charisma, had been deliberately electrocuted in a manner which would simulate death by colic. Two veterinarians who had examined the horse postmortem found no evidence of electrocution, and one had opined that the horse’s death was possibly related to a collapsing episode a few days before. They did not even find evidence of colic. The Hearing Committee refused to pass on that proof, and failed to adduce any testimony on the central fact of whether there was any scientific or medical basis for concluding that death by electrocution was indistinguishable from death by colic. How can the cause of death now be established years after the autopsy, other than on the say-so of the alleged executioner? The Hearing Committee declared:

    “The panel felt it should await the outcome of the criminal proceedings before attempting conclusions about evidence of this nature. The panel felt the same way about the private investigator’s evidence and the evidence which may or may not be forthcoming from the witness recently located.”

    No independent proof was ever adduced as to whether Tommy Burns had ever met Lindemann, and there was no inquiry as to whether there was any corroboration of any aspect of his story.

  5. one for the horse
    one for the horse says:

    As the rumor mill flys, it is being said that a) the dog has been retired due to this and/or b) the AKC has or will intervene to force Mrs. Hulick’s name to be removed as an owner (the current issue of DOG NEWS already has done that LOL) and/or c) once the uproar subsides, the dog will be back in the ring, presumably with another backer (good luck on that one, maybe if Ted Bundy were still alive he would be interested) or with Mrs. Hulick silently paying the way.

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