A former president of the Humane Society Yukon was found guilty today on charges of disobeying territorial government orders.

A territorial court judge gave Shelley Cuthbert two years' probation, during which she cannot serve as a board member nor officer of any non-profit organization.

Judge Karen Ruddy said Cuthbert had multiple opportunities to comply with the Registrar of Societies' orders to allow membership to the society for people she denied last year.

Ruddy said "strict standards of honesty and loyalty” need to be upheld when serving on a charitable board.

Cuthbert's apparent indifference to legally binding orders posed "a real risk to the reputation and future funding of the HSY,” the judge said.

The judge also handed down a $500 fine, to be paid as a donation to the society within 18 months.

"You have certain obligations, and when you don't meet those obligations, there are consequences,” Ruddy said.

Three former board members pleaded guilty last May to the same charges Cuthbert faced, and received similar sentences but were spared the donation requirement.

In September 2012, the registrar ordered the society to hold a special meeting to elect a new board and to renew memberships to people whom the board had barred illegally.

The board ignored the order, putting them in violation of the Societies Act and prompting charges against board members Maryanne Baer, Isabelle Cote and Gerald Thompson, as well as Cuthbert.

Cuthbert said she thought her lawyer had filed for an application for a judicial review of the registrar's order.

"‘It was my lawyer's fault'” does not amount to a satisfactory defence,” Ruddy told the court today.

"Unfortunately, I have serious concerns about the reliability of Ms. Cuthbert's (statements).... She presents as someone who hears what she wants to hear.”

Cuthbert appeared unrepentant.

"It's over, and despite what the judge said, we based everything on legal advice,” she told the Star after today's court session.

"In the future, refrain from hiring an attorney and fight your own legal battles to ensure that everything gets completed in a timely fashion,” she said.

Last year's controversy came in the wake of "an ongoing, acrimonious dispute” that led to a complaint to the registrar, resulting in the charges, Ruddy said.

Former society president Andrea Lemphers, who founded the Yukon chapter in 1989, said in an interview this week the membership denial was "outrageous” and violated the constitution of the organization, nearly causing its dissolution.

"It was very hard to see it decline into such a state that it did under a few of the past presidents,” she said.

Lemphers said much of the bad blood has to do with the issue of euthanization.

"There was a certain group in the community who felt we had no business euthanizing animals .... But it's impossible to save everything, as is proven because they nearly went completely bankrupt.

"There's a public trust there that an animal adopted from the society is healthy and safe,” Lemphers said.

As of June 2013, the humane society had roughly $50,000 in unpaid bills, president Hoby Irwin told the Star earlier this year.

The society was able to begin paying them off after a lawsuit brought against Cuthbert and the three former board members by the registrar several months previous.

The registrar resorted to filing the civil suit for similar reasons that charges were laid against the former directors under the Societies Act.

The society was granted more than $61,000 in damages last June because the foursome failed to comply with the registrar's orders, made after they were informed several times of the board's violations.

"This is an unusual case,” said Philippa Lawson, a government litigator. "It's very unusual for the registrar to step in effectively as a public trustee on behalf of a society in Yukon.”

The humane society found its way into the black following the settlement of the suit.

Society infighting threatened the society's operations in August 2012, when Cuthbert said former board members were creating a toxic environment at the shelter to the point where it might need to be shut down.

A new board was elected in December 2012 after the Yukon Supreme Court ordered the society to hold its annual general meeting.

Cuthbert, who keeps dozens of dogs on her five-acre property in the Tagish Estates subdivision, was a director from August 2011 to April 2012.