The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office is suing an animal rescue organization that was once a favorite among Hollywood celebrities, alleging that its owner purchased dogs from puppy mills and portrayed them to adopters as animals that were rescued.
Melissa Bacelar, chief executive and owner of Wagmor Pets in Studio City, bought and resold “hundreds if not thousands of dogs purchased from breeders,” charging customers up to $1,500 for so-called adoption fees, city prosecutors said in the lawsuit filed last week. They allege that she was operating an “illegal commercial enterprise” disguised as a non-profit animal rescue. Some dogs she sold had serious health problems and died within days or weeks of purchase, according to the city lawsuit.
“Consumers who believed they were giving rescued dogs a home instead became unwitting financial supporters of the very breeding industry they sought to avoid,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit seeks to bar Wagmor and Bacelar, as well as two other organizations she controls, from engaging in fraudulent business practices and fine them more than $7 million for violating various city and state laws.
Bacelar disputed the accusations, and said the lawsuit is filled with recycled claims that were previously litigated and dismissed. She called the case a “money grab” and questioned why the city is spending resources prosecuting her when the state is facing a crisis of unwanted stray animals.
“It seems like they’re trying to make me into the bad guy when I’m just trying to save dogs,” Bacelar told The Times Tuesday.
The lawsuit follows reporting by The Times in 2024 about Bacelar’s operation. Customers filed lawsuits claiming Bacelar was buying dogs on the cheap from breeders, then misrepresenting them as rescues and charging high adoption fees, The Times reported.
Veterinary documents obtained by The Times from the state of Missouri show that Wagmor was listed as the final destination for dozens of dogs purchased at the Southwest Auction in Rocky Comfort, Mo., where breeders parade their wares before bidders sitting in rows of metal bleachers.
The controversy emphasized how California, where shelters are overflowing with animals, failed to regulate private rescue groups.
Bacelar has consistently denied buying dogs from breeders, insisting that all of her dogs qualify as rescues because they are animals in need. She said that when a rescue group in Missouri she worked with had animals for her, she didn’t ask where they came from.
“I’ve never given anybody permission to buy from an auction,” she said previously. “If a rescue group buys dogs and needs to place them, I’ll take them.”
Wagmor became famous in 2019 after the organization was featured on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show. The comedian and her wife had adopted a puppy, a chocolate-brown poodle named Mrs. Wallis Browning.
DeGeneres announced to viewers that her dog came from a “wonderful rescue place,” and soon after, Wagmor found pets for Jennifer Aniston, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and other celebrities.
L.A. prosecutors said that Bacelar uses “misleading appeals” to solicit donations, often featuring photographs of dogs unrelated to the animals described in her solicitations.
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