Photo by Gene Dalton | The Roanoke Times

Animal welfare advocate Lauren Humphries holds the three kittens she bought at a Christiansburg pet shop.

What started out as a puppy tussle may have just escalated to an all-out cat fight.

In early March, when Christiansburg's ZooQuatic Pet Center announced its intention to become the first pet store in the New River Valley to sell purebred puppies, local animal welfare advocates got hot under the collar. They organized an online petition to urge a boycott of the store and to publicize the issue of "puppy mill" puppies. Now ZooQuatic faces charges that it sold kittens illegally -- charges brought by the welfare advocates.

The charges were filed Friday in Montgomery County General District Court claiming that ZooQuatic violated state law by allegedly selling three kittens without vaccinations and under the age of 7 weeks. State law requires that no person shall sell a cat under 7 weeks of age without its "queen," or lactating mother. It further stipulates that dealers shall provide the new owner with the cat's immunization history. The misdemeanor charges carry a monetary penalty of not more than $500, according to Montgomery County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Patrick Jensen.

The women who brought the charges, Lila Borge Wills and Christy Smith -- both members of a local animal welfare group called the Virginia Partnership for Animal Welfare and Support -- assert that ZooQuatic has crossed the line.

"If they want to sell pets in a pet store, they should at least do it legally," Wills said Wednesday. "If not ethically, at least legally."

Jonathan Couch, the pet store owner, said he would rather not comment on the allegations at this time because he has not had an opportunity to talk to his attorney.

"If a mistake was made, we will work hard to correct it," he said, declining to confirm whether or not his store has kittens for sale.

ZooQuatic had faced criticism for its sale of puppies before, and that criticism was stoked again after a fire March 21 in Bland County killed nearly 200 dogs and puppies at an Amish puppy-breeding farm, Dogwood Kennels.

On April 14, a dozen protesters, mostly Virginia Tech students carrying signs reading "ZooQuatic Pet Store Is Socially Irresponsible" and "Every 1 U Buy Means 1 Will Die," held a demonstration near the store, saying they wanted to make the public understand that pet-store puppy sales support the mass production of puppies and the mass euthanasia of dogs awaiting adoption.

But ZooQuatic -- a business that has been in Couch's family for 26 years -- had quickly found a market for puppies. Customers who previously traveled to Roanoke to buy puppies were happy to buy them from ZooQuatic, according to Couch.

ZooQuatic purchased its puppies from the Hunte Corp. in Missouri, the nation's largest commercial puppy-breeding operation. Couch visited the farm and said he was impressed with the quality of care given to the puppies bred there.

"I hate upsetting people," Couch said at the time, "but we feel overall this is the best decision for our business. I hope that everybody can see that we're doing this in a responsible manner."

Now, however, ZooQuatic critics are saying the store is categorically irresponsible, especially now that cats are involved, too.

Wills said that when she heard that ZooQuatic was selling kittens, her reaction was one of "shock, disappointment and dismay."

"Two of my friends went down to see the kittens, see if they were really underage," she said. "They bought all three that were there."

Lauren Humphries, who works with Wills at Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center, said she bought the domestic, orange short-hair kittens for $40 apiece. They were taken to a veterinarian to confirm their age.

"They were so tiny," Humphries said. "One of them had eye problems."

Humphries said a sales clerk at ZooQuatic told her the kittens were 5 weeks old. She said she did not receive a vaccination record for the animals.

Jensen, in the commonwealth's attorney's office, said his office will not prosecute the case. He said the police officer authorizing the complaint will likely appear before a judge, along with the accused and the complainants, in a "less formal" hearing.

"As a general matter, our office usually does not get involved in misdemeanors that don't require jail time, unless we are specifically asked," he said, noting that he was not aware of the code violation ZooQuatic is accused of committing.

"Quite honestly, I've never heard of that," he said, explaining that such misdemeanors include trespassing on school or church property at night and hunting or fishing on private property without permission.

"Generally, they're not offenses that would pose a threat to the community," Jensen added.

The animal welfare advocates, of course, see the alleged offense as a threat to animals everywhere.

"It's just the right thing to do," said Debi Smith, who heads up the local Dalmatian Rescue of Southwest Virginia. "Somebody needs to do it. Somebody needs to stand up for the animals."

The matter is set to be heard in Montgomery County General District Court on May 29.