East Brunswick Revokes License of Just Pups

East Brunswick, NJ - To claps and cheers, the five-person East Brunswick Township Council voted to revoke the license of Just Pups late Monday night, a rare move for a township to shut down a local business.

The decision comes on the heels of 267 animal cruelty charges filed against the pet store by the NJSPCA, and the finding of three dead puppies in the store earlier this year.

Embattled Just Pups owner Vincent LoSacco did not show much emotion after the vote.

"We knew they were going to revoke the license," LoSacco said. "This was all just for show. We objected to the whole hearing and we will be filing an appeal."

The audience clapped and cheered after the Council voted. Several people shouted "Yes!" and "You did the right thing!"

One woman in the audience silently held up a sign bearing the name of a dog at Just Pups that died. The sign read "Gwen RIP," and had the dog's red collar attached to it. Other audience members became visibly emotional when they talked about dogs they bought from Just Pups that died within days of purchase.

"My young children, 9 and 5, watched as a puppy we bought from there on January 1 died within a month," said Old Bridge resident Inna Shephard, 37. "They are scarred forever. They don't understand how a puppy can die in a month."

"So many deficiencies, it's hard to keep track"

Throughout the hearing, LoSacco sat, stone-faced, as the township brought up witness after witness testifying about the conditions they found inside his Rt. 18 store.

"There were so many deficiencies, it's hard to keep track of them," said Linda Frese, a state inspector with the New Jersey Department of Health. "But the most outstanding ones were the lack of veterinary care. Medications were not being administered according to the instructions, disinfectants weren't being used according to instructions. It took me six hours to find all the paperwork needed for the dogs there."

The most dangerous violation was the lack of disease control, she said. Healthy dogs were exposed to parvovirus, and more, she said.

"Many of the larger dogs appeared very thin," she added.

42 sick puppies in the store at one point

Jo Ann Lesko, an East Brunswick Animal Control Officer, talked about several inspections she did of Just Pups earlier this year.

"There was the day we located a German Shepherd puppy in the isolation room; she was listless, she was in a bottom cage by herself," said Lesko. "When we removed her from the cage, she was literally skin and bones. At that time we decided she needed to be taken to a vet immediately."

Lesko said puppies were kept in "abnormal" crowding conditions when she inspected Just Pups, and, on one day, found as many as 42 sick puppies kept inside the store.

Kennel cough is common, Lesko said, but what concerned her was the number of puppies that showed signs of kennel cough: On another day, she found 18 puppies with kennel cough being kept in quarantine, and more that showed symptoms, yet were not being kept in quarantine, she said.

"Every animal in that facility was potentially exposed to whatever illness was in that facility," said Greg Laszlo, an environmental health specialist with the county.

He talked about finding the three dead puppies stored in a freezer.

"We found three dead puppies in a freezer in the back of the store with no identification, how they died or where they had come from ... just discarded in the back of the freezer," Laszlo said.

It is not a violation for pet stores to temporarily keep dogs in a freezer when they die, but they need proper identifying paperwork, he said.

LoSacco's attorneys object

Among their many objections, LoSacco's attorneys argued that East Brunswick cannot revoke the license without first a recommendation from Middlesex County.

However, Lester Jones, director of the Middlesex Office of Health Services, who testified at the hearing, was clear that he recommended the township simply review Just Pups' license. When pressed by LoSacco's attorney, he declined to give a recommendation to revoke or suspend it.

Only the township, not the county, can approve or deny a license, East Brunswick Township administrator Jim White has previously said. The county health department performs health inspections, but only the township can renew or deny a license.

LoSacco still owns three other puppy stores in New Jersey.