After evicting a tenant who abruptly shuttered a pet crematorium this summer, a San Marcos landlord said he found at least 150 animals stored in around 20 freezers inside the business — and he hopes to soon begin reuniting people with their pets.
Juan Manuel Villanueva, who owns the Pacific Street property that formerly housed Angel Paws Pet Cremation, said the business was in disarray, with some pets in freezers missing identification tags, while others had decomposed after thawing out and then being refrozen. He said he hasn’t been able to determine exactly how many pets remain at the site.
Villanueva said he will first try to clean things up before he begins matching animals with owners by looking through photos, descriptions, microchip tag data and other identifying material he has been sent. On Thursday, he sent an email to around 130 people who have been in contact with him and pledged to try to sort things out.
“During our initial review, we found that some freezers had been unplugged and many identification tags were removed, which has made the process of verifying each pet more challenging,” he wrote in the email. “Despite these difficulties, we are doing our absolute best to handle each pet with care and respect.”
He asked pet owners to frequently check their emails for updates as he tries to match pets with owners.
“As we work through the facility, we will post pictures of the pets or identification tags we may find in this email thread. Once you have identified and verified your pet, please reply with your phone number, and we will call you to schedule a private and respectful time for pickup,” he wrote.
He estimated it could take three or four weeks to sort through the freezers and contact all the owners.
“I’m really sad for all these people who unfortunately cannot get their pets back, because it is part of their family, and I know they are missing their pets and also the frustration of not knowing whether they are there or not,” he said in an interview Thursday.
Villanueva said there are dogs and cats stored in the freezers, as well as a parrot and an iguana.
Longtime customers first noticed things going awry with the business during the summer, when owner Chris Settle stopped returning phone calls.
The city of San Marcos got involved after it fielded complaints about odors and sent code enforcement staff to the business. The city eventually got a court order and hired a biohazard contractor to clean up the premises. That work was done in late September.
Villanueva filed a lawsuit seeking to evict Settle from the property, alleging in court documents that he had stopped paying rent and allowed electricity and gas at the premises to be shut off. In court filings, Settle denied the lawsuit allegations. He could not be reached for comment.
On Oct. 3, sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at the property as part of a fraud investigation. The action came after the Sheriff’s Office received complaints from people who were not able to pick up their animals’ remains.
Some pet owners were given boxes filled with ashes that they were told were from their pets — but they later learned their animals had never been cremated. A rival business, Sorrento Valley Pet Cemetery, has offered to help affected customers by providing cremations at no charge.
Customers became suspicious after learning that the gas to the crematorium had been cut off. Some people were able to retrieve their dogs from freezers by showing up when sheriff’s deputies and Settle were at the site. Many others were left not knowing what had happened to their pets.
Villanueva said the eviction was delayed by weeks, which he called frustrating for everyone involved.
“We were getting all these emails from all these poor people that were trying to get in and identify their pets, and so we were pretty much helpless,” he said. “We just felt bad for all the pet owners.”
