Amber Heard, who is facing dog-smuggling charges in Australia, had her case continued until Nov. 2 after the actress failed to appear Monday to answer allegations.
Heard, the wife of A-list actor Johnny Depp, could get as many as 10 years in prison if she is found guilty of illegally importing the couple's dogs to the country and failing to
declare them to customs officials, according to the BBC News.
The dogs were discovered at the Gold Coast mansion where Depp and Heard were staying earlier this year and ignited a public feud with the country's agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce. The incident also caught the attention of social media which dubbed it the #WarOnTerrier.
Depp was staying in Australia during the filming of
"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," according to People magazine. Joyce initially threatened to euthanize the dogs if Depp and Heard did not return them to the United States within 72 hours after they were discovered.
TMZ reported in July that, even though the dogs were returned to the states, commonwealth prosecutors have continued to press the case against Heard, who appeared this summer in the movie "Magic Mike XXL."
Under Australian law, dogs coming to the country must be quarantined for 10 days to avoid spreading disease. Heard is being accused of "producing a false or misleading document, namely an incoming passenger card," that carries a one-year maximum sentence and a $10,200 fine, according to the celebrity gossip site.
Depp joked about the incident at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.
"I killed my dogs and ate them under direct orders from some kind of, I don't know, sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia,"
the actor said at a news conference, according to the New York Daily News.
Depp and Heard attended the film festival hyping two movies that are receiving Oscar buzz. Depp, a three-time Academy Award-nominee, stars in "Black Mass," a biopic of real-life convicted Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.
Heard co-stars in the movie "The Danish Girl," which has also garnered award attention because of Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of a transgender artist in the 1920s.
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