Protesters target ‘The Puppy Shop’ in Manassas | News

As Hannah Macomber, 23, and Nick Koukerjinian, 26, left Eavesdrop Brewery in Manassas, they noticed a large “Puppies!” sign and thought they were walking into an adoption event. Instead, they wandered into The Puppy Shop.  

“I immediately got excited, of course, but that soon changed,” Macomber wrote in a social media post that’s been shared nearly 500 times. The post said the retail pet store smelled of urine; the cages were dirty; and the puppies lacked adequate water and looked “sad.” 

“Something needs to be done about this place,” she wrote. 

It wasn’t long before Angela Jrab, 58, of Nokesville, who owns The Puppy Shop, located at 7223 Centreville Road, felt the effects of the viral post. Animal advocates complained to the police, prompting inspections. That was followed by a protest in front of the store last week.   

“They are posting things that aren’t true,” Jrab said in an interview with the Prince William Times. “They don’t like puppies in enclosures, and they don’t like puppy stores, so therefore they want to just shut all the puppy stores down.”  

The Puppy Shop is licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and recent inspections by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and local police have found no violations. Jrab said her puppies come from licensed breeders and are well cared for. She said she provides a service to families looking for specific breeds.  

But animal advocates remain undeterred in their opposition.They are circulating a petition calling on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to find ways to shut down pet stores in the county.  

Jrab, a former City of Manassas police officer who previously owned a private security company, opened The Puppy Shop in the New Baltimore area of Fauquier County in 2020.

She was forced to close in 2021 when the supervisors there declined to renew a county permit she needed to operate. Then, Jrab moved her shop to Prince William County, which does not require a special use permit to run a puppy store in certain commercial zoning districts. 

Jrab said she was forced out of her last location, near Interstate 66 and Balls Ford Road, late last year. The business park association “didn’t want a pet store there, which we were unaware of when we moved in,” Jrab said.  

“They tried over and over again to get us to break our lease and so we did,” she said.  

Jrab moved The Puppy Shop to its current location on Centreville Road a few months ago after she secured a county change-of-use permit to “mercantile,” which allows her to sell puppies in a building that was previously a church. 

Jrab said her shop has never had any animal-related violations: “To say we’ve ever had a violation would be false.” 

The last two inspections of The Puppy Shop by state animal welfare inspectors found no animal health hazards, according to state records. 

A September inspection at the previous location noted a “noncompliance” because the shop did not have proper disease control protocols in place. Jrab remedied the issue as required, according to a December state inspection report.

In response to more than a dozen complaints, Prince William County police sent out both Chief Deputy Animal Control Officer Benjamin Lambert and later Animal Services Bureau Director Anthony Cleveland, who oversees both the county’s Animal Control Unit and animal shelter, to inspect The Puppy Shop, according to Lt. Jonathan Perok, a Prince William County police spokesperson. 

“There were no violations found,” Perok said, noting that both inspectors have decades of experience in animal welfare.  

“The police can only act on the (Virginia) code,” he said, adding that residents concerned about puppy stores should take it up with state lawmakers. 

“If they feel the law is insufficient, they need to go to Richmond and petition their lawmakers for change,” Perok said. 

While advocates say they worry the puppies come from puppy mills — inhumane commercial breeding facilities — Jrab says she sells puppies only from USDA-certified breeders. She said all puppies receive a physical and health certificate before they enter her store, and all receive vaccinations on a recommended schedule. She said she feeds the dogs grain-free food mixed with vegetables and provides plenty of fresh water. 

The puppies are kept in enclosures that are constructed of plastic and glass. The floors are partially solid plastic with the remainder a raised wire grate with litter underneath, allowing the puppies to relieve themselves without being taken outside. 

Jrab said her enclosures meet USDA standards for floor space, based on the size of the puppies and the number of puppies housed in the enclosure. A 7-inch puppy requires a bit more than one square foot, while a 52-inch puppy requires about 23 square feet, according to USDA guidelines.   

The puppies are not taken outside to play — or even allowed on the floor of the shop — for health and hygiene reasons. “Their feet don’t touch the ground,” she said.

But Jrab maintains the puppies get “plenty of exercise” in the shop’s enclosures and when they are handled. In the back of the store, Jrab has raised enclosures made of wooden slats in front of a window that provide about 36 square feet of play area. 

Jrab said she provides a service for families looking for specific breeds, designer crossbred dogs or hypoallergenic varieties. She sells about 50 puppies a week and has sold to more than 4,000 customers. Prices range from about $800 for a dachshund to about $5,000 for a French bulldog. 

When a dog gets too old or too large for its enclosure, Jrab said she discounts the dog’s price and, if needed, rehomes it for free. Jrab said she’s never surrendered a dog to an animal shelter.   

Retail puppy sales are controversial because some believe they are a cover for puppy mills, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — the ASPCA, a national advocacy group. It says banning retail pet stores is a way to fight puppy mills and encourage adoption. 

Six states — California, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New York and Washington — have banned retail pet stores, as have more than 400 cities and counties, including Atlanta, Boston, Cook County (Chicago), Dallas and Philadelphia, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. 

During a protest outside the puppy store on March 22, residents said they are concerned about the puppies’ treatment at the shop and want it closed.  

Melinda Dolinger, 31, of Woodbridge, visited The Puppy Shop and afterward launched a Change.org petition, calling for county supervisors to act. As of Monday, March 31, the petition had been signed by more than 1,700 people. 

“This mistreatment of animals cannot be overlooked, and it is high time Prince William County took effective steps toward protecting the voiceless,” Dolinger wrote in the petition, which encourages residents to speak at the supervisors’ meeting this Tuesday, April 1. 

Along with about 20 others, Dolinger, Macomber and Koukerjinian, none of whom had ever before attended a protest, demonstrated outside the shop with homemade signs for several hours last weekend. 

Macomber said she won’t stop fighting for the puppies inside The Puppy Shop. “The conditions they’re in, it’s absolutely terrible,” she said. 

Reach Cher Muzyk at [email protected] 

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