Plea of No Contest in Animal Cruelty Case

The owner of Docktor Pet Center in Torrance, an outlet of the nation’s largest pet store franchiser, pleaded no contest Tuesday to two counts of animal cruelty and 10 counts of improper pet shop operation.

Richard Rosenthal, 35, of Whittier entered the plea in South Bay Municipal Court in exchange for prosecutors dropping about 100 similar charges, Deputy Dist. Atty. Amy-Hannah Kraus said.

Under terms of the plea agreement, Rosenthal will serve at least two years probation and be ordered to pay nearly $11,000 in restitution to pet owners and to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, lawyers for both sides said. He will also relinquish ownership of 21 animals seized last year at the pet shop in Del Amo Fashion Center, Kraus said.

The SPCA cared for the animals--ranging from dogs and cats to cockateels and snakes--for more than a year and will put them up for adoption today at the society’s main shelter, SPCA investigator Cori Whetstone said.

The case against the pet center began in late 1986, when a shopper reported seeing a dead rabbit in a display window, Whetstone said. Animals were crowded into small cages and sick creatures were poorly cared for and at least 35 customers complained that animals purchased at the store were diseased, Whetstone said.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge earlier rejected arguments by Rosenthal’s lawyer that state animal laws are overly broad, permitting criminal charges against pet shop owners who do not immediately clean soiled cages.

Defense attorney Alex Forgette said Rosenthal pleaded no contest “to resolve this and let everybody get this behind them.”

“They could probably produce evidence that the cages were not as clean as they should have been,” he said.

Rosenthal was convicted last year on a single count of improperly operating a pet shop related to his operation of Docktor Pet Center in Montclair, San Bernardino Deputy Dist. Atty. Nancy Cooper said.

Fifty-eight misdemeanor charges are still pending against Raymond A. Charpentier of Torrance, manager of the Del Amo Fashion Center store.