Wagmor Pets accused of buying, reselling dogs

Only on Fox 11, the animal rescue that touted Hollywood A-listers as clients who adopted dogs is facing a lawsuit from the city of L.A. which calls Wagmore Pet Rescue a dog laundering business. Fox 11's Christina Gonzalez, live in Studio City. Christina. Well, and I'll tell you, the city attorney was telling me it was the mayor's office that actually called them. They had been getting complaints of people paying thousands of dollars to adopt an animal, getting animals that were not fixed. And those are big red flags. That's not supposed to happen. And then this is a rescue that was associated with a lot of Hollywood celebrities. Here, take a look. This was very hard to get exposed, very hard to have anybody listen. There's a lot of good press on Wagmore. A lot of celebrities were supportive. Environmental activist Ashley Olson is talking about Wagmore Pets Dog Rescue and its owner, Melissa Bassilar, seen here on her website, listing a cadre of celebrities that supposedly adopted her dogs, which the city attorney says were not rescues. My office described it as puppy laundering. And that is very much what we believe this Ms. Bassler and her businesses were doing. They were basically transacting business with puppy mills. They resold the puppies for $1,000, $1,500, or even more dollars. As an adoption fee. Way more than the state mandated $500 maximum adoption fee for animals that often ended up sick like the dog Olson ended up adopting. She had a urinary tract infection. She had a kennel cough, a respiratory infection. And it ended up meaning that she had the worst case of ringworm. My vet of 40 years has ever seen which spread to my next door neighbor's kids. Olson ended up creating the website the truth about dog more. She was showing signs of distemper The dog was sick. I come to realize that she knew that they had distemper when she gave it to me. After a month of having these babies, we had to put them to sleep. Medical conditions that came with my puppy include respiratory infection, Bordetella, canine influenza, ringworm, and a staph infection. Mail piles up at Wagmore's now shuttered storefront where there's a non-payment of rent notice on the door, but city officials allege that Bassler continues to operate. Now apparently out of her home and online, and we intend to put a stop to the practice. The complaint actually seeks an injunction, not only against the company, but against the owner, who is responding to media outlets saying she will respond to the city's complaints in court. And I quote, we will never stop fighting for the dogs who need us, end quote. The city attorney has actually set up an email looking for other victims. We're going to put that on our website at foxla.com. Because aside from From everything they're doing legally, they're also trying to get restitution for these victims. So be on the lookout for that. We'll keep you updated. Live in Studio City, I'm Cristina Gonzalez. Back to the studio, Cristina. Very eye-opening right there.