She has a very glitzy website. I checked her out a bit & found
this report from earlier this year.

Agency probes pet shop, home
By Neda Raouf
Staff writer
NORWALK - A local animal control authority served a search warrant Friday at a pet store and the store owner's home after receiving customer complaints, including allegations of the sale of sick animals, officials said.
Southeast Area Animal Control Authority searched Anna's Pet Grooming and questioned employees while they also searched the home of Anna Berardini, said SEAACA Capt. Aaron Reyes.

Officers were investigating complaints about sick animals, animal treatment and allegations that Berardini treats animals herself for conditions for which a veterinarian should be consulted.

"On the surface, it's (about) sick animals, but it's how the animals become sick, how they are treated or not treated," Reyes said.

Several boxes were removed from both locations to be analyzed and possibly used in an impending criminal case, said Reyes, who declined to comment on what officers found.

Also, four sick puppies were impounded and will be kept for observation and treatment at SEAACA, he said.

Berardini, in a telephone interview, denied the allegations, saying that she follows the law and takes the best care of dogs and cats at her store. She also accused SEAACA officials of targeting her.

"SEAACA has done everything they can to hurt me," she said. "I don't care what SEAACA does. They will never break me."

Reyes denied that the agency has gone after Berardini and said it has investigated several other pet stores in the area.

"We have an obligation to (help) the animals in the community," he said, adding that over the past two years, SEAACA has had at least 10 independent complaints about Berardini's store from people across Southern California. "We do not get complaints about other pet stores like we do about Anna."

SEAACA led a team including officers from the San Diego and Pasadena humane societies, sheriff's deputies and two Norwalk code enforcement officers.

Officials closed the home and the business for at least four hours while the search took place.

While searching the pet store, officers said they received at least two phone calls from customers complaining about having bought sick animals at the store, and that will also be part of the investigation, investigators said.

Store employees … groomers and bathers … were questioned and then stood outside as officials searched the premises. A veterinarian employed with SEAACA examined animals inside, Reyes said.

Karen McArthur, a store employee who has worked there for about two years, said she has not seen or heard about problems with sick pets or bad care.

Two employees, Brenda Britton and Lordes Castillo, who both have worked at the store for more than a decade grooming and bathing animals, denied ever having heard customer complaints.

Several customers, who stopped by the store after the warrant was served, said they had not had any problems with the care their pets had received there.

Curtis Raines and his wife have been customers at the store for at least eight years … giving their two dogs flea dips and grooming every few months … and have no complaints.

Another customer, Ed Ureta, said he and his mother have brought their dog to Anna's for about three years.

"My mother loves this place," Ureta said. "She takes the dog here every time it gets sick or if it needs grooming."

Berardini said she rescues dogs and cats and has been in business for decades. Also a breeder, she treats some of the dogs she sells, giving them shots and antibiotics as well as other care, but she does not treat other people's pets, she said.

SEAACA officials are asking anyone who has purchased a pet from Anna's Pet Grooming or has any additional information to contact Cpl. Stephen Vaisa at (562) 803-3301, ext. 235.


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