Amber Heard Charged With Illegally Importing Dogs

Looks like Amber Heard's relationship with Australia might be going to the dogs, as they say. You might remember the actress and her husband Johnny Depp first got into some hot water with the country a few months back, after the agricultural minister accused them of illegally importing their furry friends into the Land Down Under. At the time, it sounded like authorities let the couple go with just a warning. But according to news reports, Amber Heard has now been charged with illegally bringing dogs into Australia, and she's been summoned to appear before an Australian court. Bustle has reached out to Heard's reps for comment, but has not yet heard back.

For a quick refresher on this story, Heard and Depp had been spending quite a bit of time in Australia earlier this year, since Depp is there filming the fifth installment of Pirates of the Caribbean. And this past May, when the couple flew back to the country after being away, Depp allegedly violated the country's agricultural policies when he was accused by Australian Agricultural Minister Barnaby Joyce of smuggling his two pet dogs, Pistol and Boo, onto his private jet. The main issue with this is that Australia's policy requires a permit and quarantine for anyone bringing pets into the country for at least a 10-day period of time, which the agricultural minister accused them of not doing. The famous pair was then given a three-day ultimatum to either send the dogs back to the United States, or to hand them over to be euthanized. Naturally, the couple agreed to send their dogs back to avoid euthanasia, and they were soon returned safely to U.S. soil.

While all of that sounds pretty serious, Heard seemed to laugh off the whole incident, accusing the agricultural minister of going after the couple just because of their famous names. The actress later bashed Joyce on an Australian morning show, saying, "I have a feeling we’re going to avoid the land Down Under from now on, just as much as we can, thanks to certain politicians there. I don't know, I guess everyone tries to go for their 15 minutes, including some government officials." I don't know about you, but to me, Heard's comments make it sounds like maybe she didn't take the law as seriously as she should have.

Now, nearly two months after the incident, Heard has officially been charged on three counts. Two charges are for allegedly illegally importing the two puppies, and one charge is for allegedly producing an unspecified false document. And these are no small counts, either. The charges have the potential to lead to a maximum of three years in jail and a fine of $75,000. Yikes. Obviously, the court is not messing around here, since these charges could potentially lead to some serious legal trouble for Heard.

While Heard may have said that she wanted to "avoid" Australia altogether, it will be pretty hard to do so this fall — she's been summoned to appear in a Queensland court on September 7.