Pet shop owner pleads no contest
A pet shop owner charged last year with abusing cats, dogs and other animals -- some smothered to death or left to die in trash bins -- pleaded no contest Wednesday to animal cruelty and could be sentenced to as many as six years in prison, the L.A. County district attorney’s office said.
Under a deal with prosecutors, Young Sam Park, 53, of Los Angeles pleaded no contest to seven felonies and three misdemeanors, including animal cruelty, neglect and practicing veterinary medicine without a license. A grand jury indicted Park in June, accusing him of suffocating a Chihuahua with a rubber glove, choking a cocker spaniel and throwing a kitten against a pole.
Prosecutors said the incidents occurred at Park’s Animal House Pet Shop in Lynwood between 2004 and 2007.
Park is free on $451,000 bail and is scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Judith L. Meyer in Compton on March 14.
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-- Andrew Blankstein
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