L.A. man is indicted in animal cruelty case
A Los Angeles man was indicted Monday on 26 counts of animal cruelty and practicing veterinary medicine without a license for allegedly abusing cats, dogs and other animals, some of which were smothered to death or left to die in trash bins, authorities said.
Young Sam Park, 52, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court to 23 felony counts and three misdemeanor counts that were outlined in the grand jury indictment. Park, who remains in custody on $451,000 bail, faces a maximum of 22 years in state prison if convicted.
The incidents are believed to have occurred at Park’s Animal House Pet Shop in Lynwood between 2004 and 2007, prosecutors said. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals launched an investigation of Park in January 2005 after receiving numerous complaints.
The case eventually was turned over to investigators from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
The grand jury indictment alleged more than a dozen acts of animal cruelty, including suffocating a Chihuahua with a rubber glove, choking a cocker spaniel and throwing a kitten against a pole.
Park also was accused of performing operations in which he used wire to stitch up a pit bull, clipped the ears of numerous dogs without anesthesia and cast broken limbs of animals with concrete and plaster.
andrew.blankstein
@latimes.com
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