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Dog News: Jersey Pet Store Owner Arrested, Canine Takes ‘Award-Winning’ Pictures

By Bradley Ryder
Published on: 15:58 PST, Aug 14, 2016

A former pet shop owner in Emerson, New Jersey, entered a not guilty plea last month, according to North Jersey News.

Recently, police officers in New Jersey were forced to close a pet store after officers noticed a van on the store’s property that was filled with dogs. Upon inspection, cops found a total of 67 dogs — mostly young and covered in their own body waste — locked inside of the vehicle.

Investigators reported that the van was unable to circulate air properly, and the space heater inside of it was barely functioning. Overall, the temperature inside of the van was merely three degrees higher than it was outside, frigid by any stretch of the imagination.

According to eyewitnesses, the dogs were shaking vigorously due to the extreme temperatures. The owner of the pet store, Vincent LoSacco, stated that the van was “cleaned and temperature controlled.” He blamed law enforcement for opening the door and lowering the temperature in the van.

Further, he stated that they were covered in their excrement due to the police removing them from their cages. Nevertheless, investigating officers ignored LoSacco and removed the dogs from the property to assure their wellbeing.

According to the veterinarian, 15 of the animals needed treatment, and four were hospitalized in an intensive care unit. Meanwhile, officials from the Paramus Health Department closed the pet store. It is reported that the property will undergo a full investigation, as will the other owners of the business.

Additionally, LoSacco lost his operating license and has been charged with 267 accounts of animal abuse by the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (or NJSPCA).

Recently, a dog owner fitted her pet with a digital camera so that pictures could be taken of the animal’s everyday life. Tula, the four-year-old rescue dog, has become a bit of an internet celebrity, according to Life with Dogs.

Tula’s human master, Ken, frequently takes his daughter and the family dog to the local park. Ken’s daughter, Susie, was attempting to get “action shots” of Tula playing with her friends.

However, Susie felt that the photos she took did not capture what she wanted to show her followers on Instagram, as she reported to local media.

“It really wasn’t working because when I got close to the dogs, and they were playing. They’d just stop playing and pay attention to me.”

After some consideration, Susie hatched a novel idea: What if she could attach a camera to Tula and let her passively take the action shots? Susie was able to fasten a GoPro Mini-Cam on Tula via a harness normally used for dogs.

Now, whenever Tula goes to the park, she takes breathtaking photos that her owner posts online. Arguably, she takes better snaps than mere mortals.

“I really like capturing what the dogs would be like if humans weren’t there and capturing true interactions,” said Susie. “There’s pictures of dogs in the air with no feet on the ground, [and] they look like little ballerinas; and dogs like mid-jump that are really, really cute. One of the articles that were published on Facebook got two thousand shares on Facebook, so the response has been really amazing.”

Animals often go in places not reserved for humans. Despite humans having “dominion” over animals, based on biblical scripture, our four-legged friends are often small enough to fit into places too large for Homo sapiens.

Furthermore, they are faster, possess more flexibility, and have an uncanny ability to climb or jump obstacles. With those natural traits, their world is often a secret. However, thanks to technology, their world is slowly becoming clearer, and we thank them for it.

[Photo: iStock by Getty Images/Fly_dragonfly]

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