Pet shop owner gets bond; more charges likely

LANTANA, Fla. - A Lantana woman accused of mistreating dozens of animals, including puppies, was ordered by a judge this morning to be held on $3,000 bond. Her alleged crime: not paying an out-of-state puppy supplier after one of the pups died.

Debora Van Oort, 52, was arrested and booked into Palm Beach County Jail on larceny and grand theft charges Monday night. She could soon face more charges for animal cruelty.

Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control workers and Lantana Police raided her apartment and unlicensed pet shop, Forever Puppies in Lantana on Monday morning.

The raids revealed one disturbing sight after another, and resulted in Animal Care and Control officers seizing more than two dozen animals including dogs, cats, a rabbit, a bird and a hedgehog. Workers also found seven dead animals, including five dogs whose bodies had been stored in Van Oort's kitchen freezer, animal control Capt. David Walesky said.

The authorities were tipped off to problems over the weekend by the landlord's of Van Oort's latest business, Forever Puppies.

The landlord, Stan Gundlach, told investigators Van Oort had called and complained that the store's air conditioning was broken and that "now I have dead animals," Walesky said. The landlord said he had fixed the air conditioner.

"When she said something about a dead animal, I said, "this is it,” Gundlach said. “I can argue about rent, but dogs are like kids. Dogs can't speak for themselves."

When animal control workers searched the store Sunday, they found two dead golden retriever puppies, a male and a female, inside the shop. Necropsies revealed the puppies had no food in their systems and they were dehydrated, Walesky said.

"(There was) No food or water for the animals,” explained Walesky. “There were animals sitting in feces and we had general concerns about the living conditions in there."

Based on what they saw at the shop at 308 W. Lantana Road, the workers seized 12 animals, including dogs, cats and a rabbit.

From Van Oort's apartment, they took eight dogs, five cats and a hedgehog - the only one of Van Oort's animals that had food or water.

Walesky said county workers knew Van Oort as a woman who "stockpiled" animals at home and noted that she had been uncooperative with animal control officials in the past.

Records show that, before Van Oort opened the Lantana shop, which Walesky said lacked proper permitting, she ran Top Shelf Puppies in Royal Palm Beach. In a series of stories in December, The Palm Beach Post identified that shop as one that imported puppies from mass breeders in the Midwest.

Walesky said authorities found "absolutely no documentation" for any of the animals seized at the pet shops, and could locate no proof any of them ever had seen a vet.

Animal Care and Control is still working with the Lantana Police Department regarding what they deem to be a case of animal cruelty and "charges are imminent," Walesky said.

Van Oort's dealings with a puppy breeder in Missouri is what landed her in jail, according to the arrest report.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office received a complaint in January from Wendy Mayfield complaining that Van Oort had stopped payment on two checks totaling $1,200.

The money was to pay for two puppies, but Van Oort told the deputy investigating that because one of the puppies died she "did not feel she owed (Mayfield) the money," the arrest report states.

She promised to handle the matter once her husband got paid, but when Van Oort "broke contact" with Mayfield and the deputy, she was arrested.

Staff writer Cynthia Roldan and Liz Flynn of WPTV contributed to this report.