Their bark was so loud that this Manhattan pet shop decided to bite.
The owners of a Chelsea pet store are suing two rabid animal-rights activists they say hired kids to run through their shop screaming, “Puppy mill! Puppy mill! Puppy mill!” while knocking down displays.
The chain Citipups NYC says in its Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that Kristi Schrittwieser and Michael Feldman “have crossed the line from peaceful protest of one of the stores to trespass and physical nuisance.”
The suit decries the duo’s aggressive tactics, which include allegedly hiring otherwise oblivious kids.
“The children obviously think it is a game, and are not aware they are being used by the defendants,” manager David Jacoby says in the filing.
Schrittwieser, 53, was arrested in December 2010 for allegedly kicking Jacoby, and a judge ordered her to stay away from the premises in 2011, court records show.
But the order expired, and Schrittwieser returned with a vengeance, allegedly blocking customers from entering the store, yelling, “You are an animal abuser,” she told an employee before quietly offering him $30 an hour to switch sides and threatening another staffer, “You should watch your back. People like you get into accidents,’” according to the suit.
Schrittwieser, a Midtown resident who walks and grooms dogs for a living, called the allegations in the lawsuit “a lie.”
She spoke to The Post on her cellphone while on a jaunt with seven barking dogs.
“I’m going to get a lawyer and fight this,” said Schrittwieser, whose company is called Kristi’s Kanines. “They want us out of the front of the store. That’s all of it,” she added, vowing to return to the “picket line” this weekend to advance her goal of driving the shop out.
She said she did not assault the manager.
Puppy mills are commercial-dog breeders that animal activists accuse of treating dogs inhumanely by packing them into small crates, denying them veterinarian care and starving them.
Citipups says it does not trade in abused or mistreated animals. An employee told a Post reporter their pups come from small breeders.
A regular Citipups customer, Clive Uter, 31, said he’s glad the store is suing the activists.
“They do a lot of good things here. The puppies are happy, they’re well taken care of, their cages are always clean,” he said.