Knowingly selling sick animals
Schererville, IN (US)Incident Date: Monday, Oct 2, 1995
County: Lake
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Joseph Dettloff
The owner of Tropical Pets, at 224 W. Lincoln Highway was charged with knowingly selling diseased animals and neglecting others in his care. His parents run another of his pet stores. He also owned another pet store in Chicago Hights called Olympia Pets. Authorities there told the investigators that the store was found selling venomous snakes.
The pet store has since been inspected and may face charges by the US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources. If the owner is convicted, he will be unable to get a USDA permit to sell animals in the future.
Lake County Animal Control, spent several weeks investigating reports that the store employees were not properly caring for the animals. 49 cages and aquariums containing a variety of animals, such as kittens, rabbits, snakes, birds and mice were confiscated along with the store records and manifests. The investigation came after receiving at least 10 calls from residents who complained. One of the callers reported that she had bought a puppy and that it had died within a day of being taken home.
When Animal Control inspected the store on October 2nd, they found evidence of animal neglect, such as 4 8-week old kittens being kept in an 11 by 8.5 inch gerbil cage. Fecal matter was found on the kittens and their food and water dishes. Maggots were found in food bins, dead fish were found floating in fish tanks, an iguana was found in a glass cage that was too small for it and mode was found growing on the rear walls fo the store. References
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