Angel Paws Pet Cremation seemed to be a nondescript San Marcos enterprise, the place grieving shoppers introduced of their dearly departed pets — till they stopped getting their calls returned, and the constructing started to odor.
Angel Paws proprietor Christopher Settle was arrested Tuesday for alleged grand theft, in a scheme prosecutors say concerned taking in pets for cremations, amassing the cost, and leaving them in freezers to rot as he distributed false ashes.
The San Marcos station of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Division confirmed Settle’s arrest outdoors of his Temecula residence on a warrant issued that day in North County Superior Courtroom. He was launched on bond the subsequent day and awaits his scheduled Dec. 10 court docket look.
The San Marcos cremation enterprise was underneath scrutiny since early this 12 months, when shoppers raised considerations on social media and to native information stations about Angel Paws’s closure with their pets’ stays reportedly nonetheless inside.
Officers say that the native energy firm had minimize off the fuel and electrical energy resulting from missed funds since July 9, which might have left the carcasses decomposing for as much as 5 months earlier than Settle’s eviction in November. An affidavit in assist of the arrest warrant, obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune, mentioned Settle’s incinerator working allow expired in March 2024.
In keeping with sheriff’s workplace stories, deputies responded to calls from a number of former shoppers who gathered in entrance of Angel Paws in late September, demanding solutions. Whereas Settle was initially unresponsive, deputies satisfied him to permit the shoppers in, the place native cremation firm proprietor Gerry Wellman recounted a “grisly” scene of stacked, partially frozen pet our bodies.
“It’s only a fiasco,” mentioned Wellman, who realized of the preliminary scene firsthand from shoppers. “These individuals have been ready for his or her family members’ ashes and bought nothing. The worst factor you can do to somebody who’s grieving just isn’t reply them or to lie. That’s what made me wish to get entangled.”
Wellman, proprietor of Sorrento Valley Pet Cemetery, stepped in to supply to cremate the remaining our bodies, and says Angel Paws’ operation was “disorganized and unprofessional.”
“The proprietor of Angel Paws referred to as me to drop off 20 pets that he couldn’t cremate. He confirmed up that Saturday with a U-Haul truck of 40 plus pets,” Wellman mentioned. “We couldn’t even do stock, these have been pets that had maggots. They have been in such a deplorable state.”
Wellman says that he’s receiving as much as 15 calls a day from individuals affected by the scenario.
“The victims I labored with mentioned that they felt defrauded, they felt that everybody concerned had missed the indicators and let it go on approach too lengthy,” Wellman mentioned. “I imply, the world across the constructing smelled terrible, like throw-up.”
One pet proprietor on the September confrontation, Denise Parker, advised CBS8 that she discovered her pet amid the chaos, regardless of being advised that she was given its ashes.
“The odor was horrific,” Parker advised CBS8. “There have been our bodies laying within the freezer. Little animals … not even bagged up — simply laying on prime of animals which can be bagged up. … It was horrible.”
Former shoppers of Angel Paws or these with data are inspired to contact the San Marcos Sheriff’s Station at (760) 510-5200.
