By STEVEN VIERA
Staff Writer
EAST BRUNSWICK — Just Pups, a pet store chain that faces legal action from New Jersey’s Acting Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA), plans to auction more than 450 dogs in Missouri.
The “Just Pups Total Kennel Dispersal” is scheduled for Aug. 6 at the Sullivan County Fairgrounds in Milan, Missouri. Southwest Auction Service is the host of the event.
Just Pups owner Vincent LoSacco owns an animal care and dog breeding facility in Missouri.
According to a flier on Southwest Auction Service’s website, mother dogs will be sold with their puppies, and “over 90 percent of these dogs have been raised on the property and hand selected for superior quality and no genetic faults.”
Representatives of Southwest Auction Service could not be reached for comment.
As of July 28, a survey to stop the auction circulated via change.org had accrued over 230 signatures. Upon reaching its goal of 500 signatures, the survey will be sent to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NJSPCA) and more than 15 other organizations and officials.
Just Pups was one of 26 stores found in violation of the Pet Protection Act, which took effect in June 2015, after statewide inspections. Additionally, in February 2016, an NJSPCA officer filed 267 charges against LoSacco for violations observed at his East Brunswick location, which shut down after the East Brunswick Township Council revoked his business license.
According to a press release issued by Porrino and the DCA, their complaint “seeks to permanently ban LoSacco and Just Pets from advertising or selling animals in New Jersey” as well as pursues consumer restitution, reimbursement of attorney’s fees and investigative costs and civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each of the 32 violations LoSacco faces.
LoSacco denies the allegations. His attorney, Anthony Arturi, could not be reached for comment.
Contact Steven Viera at [email protected].