Puppy Love?

Only the dogs are blameless in Broward's strange war over Wizard of Claws

A A A Comments By Julia Reischel Thursday, Jan 26 2006

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Anderson says his business has regularly been inspected without a violation. Ricky Bell, a law enforcement investigator for the state department of agriculture and consumer services, conducted two inspections of WOC's premises in June and December of 2005. Both times, Wizard of Claws passed, though Bell admits that he alerted Anderson before investigating the kennel. "The investigation is closed, and we didn't find any wrongdoing," Bell says. "I didn't find any violations. We didn't have any victims."

Diana Fuchs, administrator of Companion Animal Program (the "Pet Lemon Law") for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, confirms Anderson's claim that Wizard of Claws has a clean record. "There have been a number of complaints against Wizard of Claws," she says, "but the majority of them have been resolved satisfactorily. At this point, we have no outstanding complaints with them. Wizard of Claws responded in a way that we would want them to respond. Quite frequently, they have asked us to fax a complaint to them so that they can respond to you faster. I wish they would all do that."

Colby Katz

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The high volume of the Andersons' business also suggests that the majority of the store's customers are happy. Anderson estimates that he sells 200 dogs a month, which means that only about 5 percent of customers are filing formal complaints with outside agencies about the store.

However, Fuchs admits, having a clean record doesn't guarantee that there isn't a problem. "With only two open complaints on them now, it's not really an issue for us," she says. "It's not that Wizard of Claws isn't a big issue, but the problem is that I don't have a lot of unresolved issues with Wizard of Claws. If there are other issues that have not been reported to us, we can't do anything about it."

With the government pacified, the Andersons still have their numerous court battles to fight. In the meantime, business is good. The couple plans to expand its storefront and has incorporated two new business names, Dog Breeder Kennel Inc. and Celebrity Kennels Inc.

Jim Anderson says the new business will have the "largest dog inventory in the world" and will work in conjunction with Wizard of Claws, no matter how many people don't like it.

So far, he has no plans to outfit his pups with bulletproof vests.