'I Heart Puppies' Owner Accuses Animal Activist of Harassment

A request for a restraining order against the director of an animal rights group has been filed by the owner of I Heart Puppies in Corona del Mar, court records show.

The "order to stop harassment" was filed in Orange County Superior Court Friday by Brooke Ann Bradford against Carole Davis, West Coast director of the Companion Animal Protection Society. CAPS, a nonprofit group, launched an investigation into the store on July 5 following complaints from residents and assertions that the store gets its puppies from Midwest puppy mills.

Bradford's action comes on the heels of a CAPS investigation that led to the temporary closure of I Heart Puppies last week while it complied with safety regulations and the request from CAPS—which cited a USDA inspection report that says one puppy came from a Nebraska puppy mill where the breeder shot a golden retriever in the head—for the store to put its animals up for adoption or risk being the target of a protest.

Davis said she only had contact with Bradford on two occasions and said her actions were not done in a harassing manner.

One occasion was "in the store, where we had a civil conversation about her lack of fire safety for the puppies, and I was able to get a stop-work order because of that," she said. "Also very civilly I told her her animals are from substandard commercial breeding facilities that violate Federal law and she was not at all interested in the evidence."

According to Davis, the investigation shows that the store had one dog from Cricks Kennels in Nebraska and the rest are from other substandard commercial puppy mills. I Heart Puppies refutes that contention and says it gets its dogs only from Critters and Pets in San Diego. Bradford did not return calls seeking comment but has stated she does not support illegal kennels or those with a history of problems with USDA requirements. 

The second contact Davis says she had with Bradford was when she emailed a letter to I Heart Puppies and copied the email to members of the media, the Newport Beach City Council and other city officials.

"How could that possibly be [perceived] as threatening if I am copying the mayor pro tem, obviously the police, the press and the City Council and all the other people including our attorney who were copied on the letter which included the evidence of the dog being shot in the head [and] none of them seemed to think it was alarming?"

A hearing on the civil harassment case is scheduled for Aug. 10. John Maher, a CAPS attorney and law professor at Touro Law School, said Davis did not harass Bradford and had not been served.

"This is a common tactic of how people react when they are confronted with evidence," Maher said. "They try to divert attention by claiming harassment.”