A popular Long Island pet store is now banned from selling
puppies in its two locations in Lynbrook and Hicksville.
This comes after
the attorney general sued the store last week for allegedly selling
sick puppies to unaware
customers.
Chelsea Halupa, of Massapequa,
was one of those customers. She and her family bought a bloodhound named Blue
in 2017.
“She was a lanky goofy bloodhound,” Halupa says. “She was a big mush.”
Blue was diagnosed with kidney disease shortly after being purchased and died
at just 4 years of age.
The state attorney
general secured a court
order banning the two Shake A Paw stores from purchasing or adopting any new
animals for resale.
It also requires a vet
appointed by the attorney general to examine all the current puppies
and freeze Shake A Paw's bank accounts to potentially pay restitution to those
affected.
A statement from Shake A Paw
read in part: “The Nassau County SPCA inspected Shake A Paw facilities and
found it completely in compliance. Inspections by the New York State Department
of Agriculture and Markets have also found no violations in annual inspections.
The attorney general’s findings are based on 100 customer complaints. That
figure represents .5 or 1% of all Shake A Paw sales.”