Just Pups Owner Denies Any Wrongdoing After Dogs Found In Freezing Van

PARAMUS, N.J. – The owner of Just Pups emphatically denied any wrongdoing Tuesday after 67 puppies and small dogs were found in near-freezing temperatures inside a van near the store Monday morning.

Police were patrolling the store parking lot when they saw a van and heard crying and wining coming from inside at about 3 a.m., said Paramus police Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg. Police found dozens of dogs inside small metal cages.

Vincent LoSacco said he was going to the store at 7 a.m. and had a vet scheduled to come at 10:30 a.m. to check on the animals.

"There's no law against leaving an animal in a vehicle unattended, you're just not allowed to leave one in a vehicle in inhumane conditions," LoSacco said.

LoSacco said the van is used to bring dogs to New Jersey every two to three weeks from Missouri “for years.” The van is capable of holding 120 dogs, he said.

Related: 50 Dogs Found In Freezing Van Outside Paramus Puppy Store

Police said some of the dogs did not have food and water. LoSacco said would be “perfectly reasonable” to expect that some of the animals would not have food or water at 3 a.m.

“We leave them with plenty of food and water all the time,” LoSacco said.

Police said the temperature inside the van was 38 degrees, only three degrees greater than the outside temperature. A propane tank in the back of the van was connected to a space heater that was “ineffective” in heating the inside of the van. Police said the van was not properly ventilated either.

“When I set the van up, I did it very thoughtfully,” LoSacco said. “The van is totally insulated.”

The van has an air conditioning unit on the top of the van in addition to the inside heater.

“It’s a vent-free heater and there is a vent to the outside that lets in fresh air. It’s a full-proof way to heat the inside,” LoSacco said. “The space heater is always on low because it if were turned up any more, it would be too hot in the van.”

LoSacco also took issue with how cold police said it was in the van.

“The only way to look inside the van was to open the sliding side door,” LoSacco said. “Once the door is open, there’s no way to tell what the temperature inside the van is. It was only that cold because the door was open.”

Police said that there were two to four dogs in some of the cages and some dogs could not stand up.

LoSacco said it is possible to put up to six dogs in a cage, but that he likes to keep them grouped by litters.

“It’s the most stress-reducing way of shipping them,” LoSacco said. “It’s strategically done. If there is a big littler we’ll split that one up or if there’s just one puppy we’ll put him with another litter.”

LoSacco said there’d be no reason to overcrowd the dogs.

“We want them to stay in their own litter,” LoSacco said.

Police said some of the animls were covered in feces, something LoSacco said that, “98 percent of the time I’m there when we unload puppies and I’ve never, ever seen a puppy covered in fecal matter.”

The cages have mesh floors so any fecal matter or urine simply goes through the mesh to a container underneath.

The dogs were taken to Oradell Animal Hospital; 15 of them needed “further medical treatment,” police said. The Paramus Health Department shut down the store while an investigation is conducted.

The Bergen County Animal Cruelty Task Force, Paramus police, and the health department are investigating the store.

It is not the first time LoSacco has been accused of animal cruelty.

The New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals filed 267 charges against the Just Pups store in East Brunswick after three dead dogs were found in a freezer. That store was also closed. Inspectors said LoSacco exposed the animals to illnesses and several dogs reportedly died after they were purchased there.
Related: Petition Calls for State To Shut down Just Pups Store

An online petition calling for the East Brunswick store to be shut down has garnered nearly 160,000 signatures.

People have complained that dogs purchased from LoSacco have been sickly and needed medical attention soon after they were purchased.

“The only way to tell if a dog is sick is sick is if it has visible symptoms,” LoSacco said. “They’re our products, why would we mistreat something that we’re going to sell to our customers? We do everything imaginable to show that we don't sell sick dogs. Why why I sell sick dogs?"

Some of the puppies police found in the cages./Paramus Police Department