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  • Members of the Tulsa SPCA and Claremore Animal Control officers uncovered more than 30 dogs of various breeds kept in small cages at Elite Pet Grooming last week. Officers investigated the local grooming business on an anonymous tip of suspected puppy mill operation. Tom Fink

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September 8, 2010

AM UPDATE: Local pet grooming business closes after multiple citations

Tom Fink Staff Reporter

CLAREMORE — A rural Claremore man was on the receiving end of nearly 60 citations last week, after a tip from the Tulsa SPCA led Claremore Animal Shelter investigators to a local pet grooming business.

“We were contacted last week by a member of the Tulsa Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), about an anonymous tip they’d received on a suspected puppy mill in the city,” said Jennifer Cummings, director, Claremore Animal Shelter. “This (tip) led us to investigate Elite Pet Grooming on south Lynn Riggs Boulevard, where we found several dogs being kept in inappropriately small cages, stacked one on top of the other, a total of 34 dogs in all.”

Cummings said the owner of Elite Pet Grooming, William Paul Howard, claimed all the animals to be his personal pets — a violation of city ordinances regarding the number of pets (three) allowed within the city limits.

Additionally, Cummings said Howard was operating his business without a permit, did not have current documentation on the animal’s  rabies vaccinations, and he could not produce proof of the animals having been spayed or neutered.

“We issued Mr. Howard numerous citations, nearly 60 in all, for operating without a permit, exceeding maximum domestic (pet) allowance, and for failure to spay or neuter and failure to provide current rabies vaccination,” she said. “The dogs appeared to be in good health, but our contact with the Tulsa SPCA had informed us they had received several complaints over the years against Mr. Howard, alleging that he had sold people in different states puppies at a cost of $500 to $1500 each, many of which later turned out to have health problems.”

Wade Farnan, Tulsa SPCA cruelty investigator, concurs.

“We’ve gotten calls on Mr. Howard for years, and we’ve been told he never sells (dogs) from his residence, but meets the buyer at a neutral location,” Farnan said. “The only reason we were able to find him (in Claremore) was that a woman who’d purchased a dog from him, followed him (to Elite Pet Grooming), then called us, and we contacted Jennifer (Cummings).”

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Abitbol accompanied Cummings and Farnan in their investigation of Elite Pet Grooming, describing the condition in which the dogs were kept to be “pitiful,” Farnan said.

As of Tuesday, Sept. 7, Elite Pet Grooming was emptied, with a “For Rent” sign in the door and when contacted, Howard declined comment.

Howard is scheduled to appear in Claremore City Court on his citations on Thursday, Sept. 16.

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