Pet shop owner must pay $33K for animals

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - An Indianapolis pet store owner will have to pay more than $30,000 to try and get hundreds of animals back from the city.

Animal care and control removed the animals last week from the Fish Bowl Pet Shop on East Michigan Road after an inspection found 581 care and treatment violations.

Wednesday a judge set bond for the confiscated animals at just over $33,000 and set a trial date for April 10.

By statute, owner Bill Houston has three days to post the bond or the animals are forfeited. If bond is posted, the animals would remain Houston’s, but would stay at Animal Care and Control pending the outcome of the trial.

Officers say a routine license renewal inspection found dirty and unhealthy conditions and some dead animals.

Houston’s lawyer said the city overreacted.

“It is completely blown out of proportion. What you had was an accidental fish kill of perhaps 150 fish out of maybe seven or 8,000 fish that were in the store,” said Houston’s attorney, Erwin Prince.

“That’s a short-sighed argument,” said Dan Shackle, Animal Care and Control Administrator. “I think this was an issue where there were multiple care and treatment violations and it’s just unfortunate that the animals were treated in such a manner.”