By Kathryn Reed

Gloomy weather in South Lake Tahoe was not enough to keep a group of frustrated residents from protesting today outside of Broc’s Puppies on Highway 50. They plan to be back Sunday.

The protest is one of many since the store opened in 2008. Unknowingly being sold a sick dog is the primary complaint. Accusations have also been made that the shop buys from puppy mills.

Protesters at Broc's Puppies on Jan. 9. Photo/Judy Brown

“It is so sad that a business of this sort is allowed to continue to sell sick puppies and to misrepresent them as ‘pedigree’ animals,” said Judy Brown, one of the protesters and president of the South Lake Tahoe Humane Society’s board of directors. “And now with apparent criminal connections with drugs with store employees and owners, the city should take action to revoke their business license.”

Legally the city cannot revoke the business license because of the most recent charges the owner faces.

Christine Jacques said the protest helped business.

“People came in who didn’t know we were here. It was great,” Jacques told Lake Tahoe News on Saturday afternoon.

She said she is a friend of the family’s who is helping while David Franks deals with being arrested on Jan. 8 on a probation violation out of Nevada.

Jacques said Franks is part owner of the pet store. She said his brother Dennis and their father were original owners. A call to the city’s business license office on Jan. 8 was not returned so it’s not known who the city has on record as being the owner.

When the council was discussing the ordinance more than a year ago there was talk that the business could not be sold and still sell puppies. But no language to that effect is in the ordinance. This was news to some council members when reached Saturday.

The retail outlet is the only one in South Lake Tahoe that is allowed to sell dogs.

That will end in a little more than a year because when the City Council approved the ordinance last year to ban stores from selling dogs or cats, Broc’s was given two years before it would need to close.