Selling Sick Pets?

This was reported from CBS2.com. Thanks Alex for submitting this!

Selling Sick Pets?

David Goldstein
Reporting

We found some of them sick, overmedicated and underweight. While you see the cute and cuddly dogs in the pet stores, we went behind closed doors… undercover with a hidden camera, sending in a producer -- who volunteered at pet stores for weeks -- exposing what really goes on!

"Do you sell sick animals?"

"No the sick dog not sell them," a pet store owner replied."

"Are you a licensed vet?"

"No."

"Why do you tell people you are?"

We uncovered things that one pet store owner didn't want to talk about.

"Please talk to me."

"Don't do it, don't do it, stop it."

It's a multi billion-dollar business. Cute canines can sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. But it is an industry-wide struggle to keep the animals healthy and get them out the door -- anyway you can.

At Pet Love in the Beverly Center our undercover camera captured this worker pumping the puppies with antibiotics. Not just once, but day after day… after day, on any given day without ever washing the syringe or his hands.

The medications require a prescription from a veterinarian for each puppy; prescriptions we never saw.

We showed the videotape to Dr. Lisa Newell who is a commissioner on the state veterinary medical board.

"They're practicing medicine and that is not OK without a license," Newell said.

But workers told our undercover producer that the puppies are medicated every day.

We saw them give this Lapso Alpso Zithromax on October 10, October 17 and October 24.

On the 25th, another producer posing as a customer asked to see dog's medical charts. There was no record of the Zithromax.

"Are you selling sick animals?”

"No, no, no way."

We tried to ask one of the owners of Pet Love about what we uncovered, but he didn't want to talk.

"There was no indication of any medication. Stop it, stop it."

The next day we spoke with the store's vet, Dr. James Werber.

"Did you prescribe this Zithromax?"

"No," Werber said. "Like many drugs in industry -- they have sources where they can get this stuff."

Dr. Werber said he was aware the staff was using it, but didn't know how frequently.

"When I see a tape where they're doing it for weeks at a time, no they should not be doing that," Werber said.

He also claims the dogs aren't sick. The drug was being used as a precaution, in this case to prevent pneumonia.

But in 2002 Pet Love was ordered by the Los Angeles Department of Animal Regulation to stop doing the same thing.

They were advised, "antibiotics are used for the treatment of illnesses and not for the prevention of them."

But that's not the only store we caught medicating animals.

In Inglewood at Pet World, the owner, Richard Yoo, is injecting puppies with antibiotics without prescriptions.

One dog had bloody stools -- Yoo medicated him and put him back up for sale. He told our producer posing as a buyer that the dog was just fine.

"This dog not been sick at all," Yoo said.

Yoo is already facing charges of animal cruelty by the SPCA for care and treatment of dogs. He denied selling sick animals.

"You can't sell them if you're giving them medication as a sick dog and selling them as healthy."

“No, no sick dog I not sell them."

And finally we went to Anna's Pet grooming in Norwalk. The owner, Anna Berardini, has been sued by several unhappy customers, including this group.

"We purchased a dog from her and it lasted 30 days."

"We originally bought three dogs, then we returned them because our vet determined all three had parvo."

Inside, we found this puppy in the bathroom, visibly sick. A groomer told our producer that it needed a shot of insulin.

Berardini is on probation for practicing veterinary medicine without a license. But listen to what she told our producer.

"There might be a vet like, like me, who'd like the extra help and they don't mind helping, you know?"

We caught up with Berardini outside the store.

"The woman who had been volunteering at the store. She works for us. You told her you were a vet."

"No, I didn't," Berardini replied.

"Yes you did, we have it on tape."

"Show me."

"…a vet like me. (clip of the piece)."

We showed what we uncovered to Madeline Berstein, the president of the spcaLA. She puts the blame on a lack of oversight.

"Should they be doing more inspections?"

"Of course they should be doing more inspections," Berstein said. "These places should literally be inspected very other day."

But of course they can't be. But in many cases stores aren't even checked once a year, which is required by law. It leaves pet store owners to go almost unregulated and leaves pets left at the mercy of others.

"These animals can't call you and say, 'Mr G, we're having a problem,' they can't call me, all they can do is sit there and take it."