The owner of Lucky Dog pet store lost his bid to keep his San Pablo Avenue store open for a few days longer so he could find homes for the chickens, pigeons, fish, turtles, rabbit, and guinea pig he had for sale.
After a judge in Alameda County Superior Court refused to grant an extension, Bobby Rostam stayed up all night on Wednesday clearing out his space at 2154 San Pablo in anticipation of getting locked out of the building by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department at 6:01 am today.
Rostam managed to find homes for most of the animals except the chickens and pigeons, he said. He had been planning to transfer them to his home and had started to construct a foundation for the coops, but was informed by the property manager that he would be charged $115 a day for every day the birds remained on the premises, he said.
Rostam said he then agreed to let Berkeley’s animal shelter take possession of the fowl.
“We got 30 chickens and 100 pigeons,” said Mary Kay Clunies-Ross, the City of Berkeley spokesperson. “We’re keeping them in place but we are going to have rescue groups come and get them.”
Rostam also left behind some fish, which were given to another pet store, and a guinea pig, which will also be given to a rescue group, she said.
Rostam bought Lucky Dog pet store eight years ago. In recent years he had been in a dispute with his landlord, Mary Pagones. Rostam said she refused to make repairs to a leaking roof that had damaged much of his inventory.
Bruce Reeves, Pagones’ attorney, said all repairs were Rostam’s responsibility under the lease. He also said Rostam was seriously in arrears on his rent and had agreed to move out of the store by November 11, 2010. When Rostam didn’t leave, and didn’t pay rent from January through March, Pagones decided to evict him, said Reeves.