My husband and I were viciously attacked by the store owner of the
meadows mall pet shop three years ago.
 
I only got to take two pictures of animal abuse going on in the pet shop,
I saw the conditions of those poor little ferrets it made me sick, so I
happened to carry a camera in my purse at all times so as I was taking
the pictures, Judy the store owner came out like a raging bull and
screamed "NO PICTURE TAKING IN MY STORE!" Then Judy slammed my husband
into the shelves to get to me, she knocked me down to the floor trying to
slap the camera out of my hands, we were wrestling there, right in the
store in front of customers!  She managed to slap the camera from my hand
and the camera flew across the room my husband tried to get the camera
when Judy attacked him and pushed him down on the floor, and she was also
wrestling with him (we were both under doctors care at the time because
of a car accident that we were just in), she re-injured both of us, now
I have headaches every day since the attack.  We both had a whiplash.
Judy grabbed us, manhandled us, and threw us out of her store, screaming
"get out of my store!" We had one of the customers follow us out of the
store and told us she was a witness to the whole attack and she was
willing to go to court with us if we pressed charges on her.  We pressed
assault charges on her, we went to court and we won, then Judy somehow
went behind our backs and got he verdict overtured, right before the
arbitration so needless to say we lost the arbitration, last month.  We
did not even know about what she did until it was too late.  We were not
even there to defend ourselves at the appeal.  We do not know how she
got away with getting the verdict overturned.  Now we only have until
this thursday to appeal but we have no more money to fight her.
 
We asked Judy why the ferrets don't have any toys or hammocks, even a
litter box, why they are crammed in a tiny fish tank with a hot light
on top with no food or water, why she cleans the fish tanks with the
ferrets in them with toxic, ammonia cleaners she told us they are just
nasty rodents.
 
I just want to tell everyone to watch yourselves when you enter that mall
because the store owners there can attack you and it is legal.  There is
nothing you can do about it.  I think everyone should go into that store
and start taking pictures of the animal abuse.  Channel 3 news tried to
investigate her store, but she sued them so they had to back off.
 
We had to move to California because Judy was sending us death threats on
our e-mail and she said that if we do not drop this case she will kill a
ferret a day.  She got into trouble for freezing her ferrets and other
animals when they got sick instead of calling the vet, I also know of
people that have seen sick and dying ferrets and other animals in the hot
metal dumpster behind her pet shop that she just disposes of instead of
getting medical treatment.  The mall has a BIG box of complaints about
this "lil pet shop of horrors" but they still let her sell animals there.
This is a travesty.
 
Wayne & Nancy Wellington
[Posted in FML issue 4276]