--- title: Johnny Depp Could Face 10 Years in Prison For Taking Dogs to Australia description: An Australian senate committee was told Monday that Depp could see a 10-year prison sentence for taking his dogs into the country. canonical: https://time.com/3895939/johnny-depp-prison-dogs-australia/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-26T11:31:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:20:17.611Z og:title: Johnny Depp Could Face Prison Time for Taking Dogs to Australia og:description: Who let the dogs in? og:url: https://time.com/3895939/johnny-depp-prison-dogs-australia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e89bfc6bbb65bad/698851950b72e3ae416e4274/gettyimages-462394164.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: "Mortdecai" Photo Call In Tokyo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Johnny Depp Could Face Prison Time for Taking Dogs to Australia twitter:description: Who let the dogs in? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e89bfc6bbb65bad/698851950b72e3ae416e4274/gettyimages-462394164.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Johnny Depp Could Face 10 Years in Prison for Bringing His Dogs to Australia by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell May 26, 2015 11:31 AM UTC  Johnny Depp attends the photo call for "Mortdecai" at The Peninsula Tokyo on January 28, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. Johnny Depp attends the photo call for "Mortdecai" at The Peninsula Tokyo on January 28, 2015 in Tokyo, Japan.Jun Sato—WireImage by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell May 26, 2015 11:31 AM UTC Johnny Depp could face up to 10 years in prison for illegally bringing his dogs into Australia and failing to declare them. The star, who is filming _Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales_, brought his two Yorkshire terriers into Australia on his private jet. An Australian senate committee was told on Monday that if the case goes to court, Depp could face up to 10 years in prison. Earlier this month, the country’s agriculture minister said the dogs would need to [leave Australia immediately or they would be euthanized.](http://time.com/3858205/johnny-depp-dogs-put-down-australia-barnaby-joyce-boo-pistol/) “If we start letting movie stars—even though they’ve been \[named\] the sexiest man alive twice—to come into our nation, then why don’t we just break the laws for everybody,” said Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce. Depp’s wife, Amber Heard, has since returned to California with the dogs. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3895939/johnny-depp-prison-dogs-australia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3895939/johnny-depp-prison-dogs-australia/"},"headline":"Johnny Depp Could Face 10 Years in Prison for Bringing His Dogs to Australia","datePublished":"2015-05-26T11:31:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:20:17.611Z","description":"Who let the dogs in?","url":"https://time.com/3895939/johnny-depp-prison-dogs-australia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Australia","celebrities","celebrity","Johnny Depp","Amber Heard"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e89bfc6bbb65bad/698851950b72e3ae416e4274/gettyimages-462394164.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e89bfc6bbb65bad/698851950b72e3ae416e4274/gettyimages-462394164.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"\"Mortdecai\" Photo Call In Tokyo","caption":"\"Mortdecai\" Photo Call In Tokyo","creditText":"Jun Sato—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3895939/johnny-depp-prison-dogs-australia/","name":"Johnny Depp Could Face 10 Years in Prison for Bringing His Dogs to Australia"}}]}] ```