Photo: QueensPost
Dec. 17, 2011 By Christian Murray
The Dog Guru, a dog rehabilitation business owned by Raja Shah, closed last week.
Shah’s non-profit business took in abandoned dogs from the New York Animal Care Control, trained them and then found homes for them. The business received some support from city agencies for saving the dogs lives.
However, Shah said he had difficulty finding owners for the dogs once they had been trained. He said most people who adopted the dogs came from outside the Sunnyside/Woodside area. Furthermore, he felt the community was not as supportive of his operation as he might have liked.
Shah, who operated out of a 5,500 sqf. warehouse located at 47-42 43rd Street (behind then Orchard Farmers Market), opened his business in Sept, 2010. He kept about 40 dogs on the premises.
He was subject to criticism for allowing his trainers to walk the dogs, many of which were pit bull mixes, near Thomas P. Noonan Park. However, he explained that they were with trained dog handlers, and then decided to stop walking them in that area anyway.
