A woman was arrested in a parking lot in Monterey Park on April 19, 2006 for allegedly selling underage puppies from Mexico, authorities said.
Karen Ho To of Monterey Park met an officer the Border Puppy Task Force, a coalition of animal law enforcement agencies, in a parking lot at Garfield and Newmark avenues, according to Dawn Cotterell of spcaLA. The officer was instructed by To to meet the seller in the parking lot and bring cash, a typical scenario in the illegal puppy sales network, Cotterell said. To was taken to a police station where she was cited on the misdemeanor charge and released, Cotterell said. "Most of these pups are bred in Mexico, pulled from their mothers at four to five weeks of age, sold south of the border and smuggled across into the United States for sale," said Capt. Aaron Reyes of the task force. "Each bust leads us to yet another seller and we're following up on leads as quickly as we can."
A coalition of 15 animal welfare agencies have worked with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to combat puppy smuggling, and several arrests have been made throughout Southern California. Anyone with additional information on puppy smuggling was asked to call spcaLA's cruelty tip line at (800) 540-7722. References« CA State Animal Cruelty Map
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