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The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed 267 animal cruelty charges against Vincent LoSacco, 50, the owner of Just Pups, the release says.
“Neither myself nor my staff have done what the summons indicate,” said LoSacco told, who owns several Just Pups locations including one on Route 17 in Paramus and Kinderkamack Road in Emerson.
Charges against the Route 18 store owner stem from lack of adequate infection control procedures, poor and improper veterinary care and the co-mingling of sick animals with new animals just brought into the premises, the state SPCA said.
LoSacco legally surrendered his dogs to Robyn Urman of to Pet ResQ, Inc. of Tenafly, and returned deposits on the only two puppies that had them, Urman told Daily Voice.
""He knew the only way to clean out that store was to get the animals out," said Urman, who took in the shop's remaining 63 puppies on Saturday so that Losacco could sanitize and reorganize.
"He did what he thought was best. I only do what I know I can fix and I know I could help," she said.
The puppies — all under six months old — must be quarantined for 30 days before Urman can adopt them out, she said.
LoSacco said NJSPCA officers came to Just Pups "four or five times" before filing charges.
"[The NJSPCA] never issued a warning, a summons or made an arrest or requested to take an animal out of my store, and then one day [an officer] sits down and writes 35 summonses," LoSacco said. "If she believed what she wrote, then she believed there was a store full of animals not being fed or watered, that there was an individual capable of causing bodily harm.
"And she did nothing about it. It's ludicrous."
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