A Paramus Board of Health hearing that was originally scheduled for Monday night was canceled because the pet store owner has decided not to try and re-open his Route 17 store, according to published reports.

Paramus Patch has reported that Just Pups owner Vincent LoSacco and his landlord agreed that he wouldn't renew his contract to lease the space. The licenses to run the pet store were tied to that particular location and the decision not to try and re-open the store made the Board of Health hearing unnecessary, Patch reported.

LoSacco told Paramus Patch that he will continue to run the two locations that are still open in Emerson and East Hanover as he tried to "regroup" and focus on the 134 animal cruelty charges he's currently facing.

LoSacco, 50, and his brother Leonard LoSacco, 51, were charged last week by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Animal Cruelty Task Force with 134 counts of animal cruelty.

Before the county prosecutor got involved, Vincent LoSacco already was facing 400 borough code violations in Paramus as well as hundreds of other charges related to his pet store in East Brunswick. The charges stem from an incident on April 4 in which Paramus police officers discovered a van behind the Just Pups store on Route 17 with 67 puppies and small dogs inside, covered in feces and in near-freezing temperatures.

Authorities say LoSacco's brother, with his knowledge, parked the van in the far back parking lot of the Paramus Just Pups store and left the area, with the anticipation that the puppies would be unloaded the next day. Police officers on patrol found the van with the puppies inside.

In addition to the charges from the incident involving the Paramus location, LoSacco also faces 267 counts of animal cruelty filed against him last month by the NJ Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in connection with the East Brunswick Just Pups store, where the remains of three dogs were found in a freezer. LoSacco faces fines that could top $100,000.

Toniann Antonelli is a social content producer for NJ 101.5. She can be reached at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.

 

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