Owner of 'Fake' Seal Beach Puppy Rescue Pawlosophy Arrested: Police

SEAL BEACH, CA — A Seal Beach woman who allegedly set up a bogus dog rescue organization and sold sick puppies to unsuspecting buyers posted bail Friday and was released from the Orange County Jail.

"Pawlosophy" owner Megan Ann Hoechstetter was arrested Wednesday on allegations of selling an ailing puppy that died a week later to an Irvine family, according to Kim Mohr of the Irvine Police Department.

According to Irvine Police, Pawlosophy's Hoeschtetter had 19 puppies in her possession at the time of her arrest, Mohr said.

Multiple January reports from Yelp stated problems with the Pawlosophy animal rescue facility.

Yelp reviewer Sam B. of Lakewood stated that he and his wife adopted a puppy from Pawlosophy in November.

"Less then 24 hours later Stella was lethargic, and would not eat. We took her to our vet (VCA) where she was diagnosed with the Parvovirus," he said. "We notified Megan (she was the rep that dropped Stella off to us). They suggested we take her to a vet they worked with, because they said this vet was less expensive, and had a high success rate with treatment of this terrible disease."

After treating Stella for 5 days her poor little 3lb body could no longer fight it, and she died.

In between time Sam posted a Yelp review saying, "I wanted other adopters to know it would be wise to have any newly adopted pups adopted from this organization checked for the parvovirus."

Since that Yelp review posting, multiple reviewers have posted similar experiences with working with Hoechtetter.

Hoechstetter, 42, allegedly established a "fake" rescue organization online to sell dogs she may have gotten from Mexico and that did not receive proper care, Mohr said. One of the business names she operated under was "Pawlosophy," Mohr said.

When police went to arrest the suspect at a hotel in Cypress, they found 13 puppies, which were taken to the city's animal care center for "much needed care," Mohr said.

The puppies are too sickly and young to be adopted at this time, she said.

Photo, Irvine Police