‘Clean slate:’ Pet shop at heart of Sunset political scandal starts over in the Richmond

Julia Baran is, quite literally, ready to move on. 

The 27-year-old owner of Animal Connection — the 3401 Irving St. Outer Sunset pet shop at the center of a major political scandal last year — is relocating across the park, to 658 Clement St. on the corner of Eighth Avenue. Baran has signed a five-year lease and hopes to open in the Richmond by mid-September.

“I’m thinking of this as a clean slate,” Baran said. “I have spent the last year cleaning up after the mess that was left for me. I’m just excited to have my own space and make it mine.”

Baran is perhaps the second-best-known pet-store owner in San Francisco’s political history, after Beya Alcaraz, who in May 2025 sold Animal Connection to Baran and, in so doing, kicked off a future scandal. Alcaraz later that year went on to have the shortest term in recorded history on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors.

Alcaraz was named to fill recalled District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio’s post by Mayor Daniel Lurie on Nov. 6, 2025, and resigned just eight days later. Her fall came after Baran described taking over a store left in filth and disarray to the San Francisco Standard, and provided Mission Local with Alcaraz’s written admissions of paying workers under the table and potentially underpaying business taxes.

Baran, who grew up in San Francisco, said she took over Animal Connection for its sentimental value.

“Looking back, I’m like, maybe I should have just started my own thing, but this is my childhood pet store,” she said of the Irving Street shop.

“It’s not a super profitable business,” she added. “I don’t ever really expect it to be. I think of it as a resource for the community.”

That business model has so far meant that Baran continues to work as a bartender while running Animal Connection. She hopes to achieve more with the new space on Clement Street, including running a delivery operation and starting a nonprofit pet rescue organization there.

“I have so many things I want to do,” Baran said. “I just haven’t been able to do them because I’ve had this huge anvil over my head.”

Speaking with Mission Local, Baran never referred to Alcaraz by name, only as “the old owner,” “the last owner,” or “the previous owner.”

“I’ve done so many trips to the dump, just with garbage the last owner left me with,” Baran said. “I don’t want to take anything with me, because it’s bringing the mice.”

Indeed, rodents have continued to plague Animal Connection and its owners, past and present.

While Alcaraz sold the business to Baran in May 2025, she remained on the lease, and was sent an eviction letter over a rodent infestation in December. Since then, Baran and Alcaraz have been involved in two lawsuits filed by the landlord, Janet Siniora.

In the first suit, which was filed in December 2025, Siniora sought thousands of dollars in unpaid rent. Following the notice of eviction, the landlord stopped collecting rent; Baran said she recently settled that suit in court to the tune of $15,000, to make up for the months she occupied the store.

Siniora’s attorney declined to comment on the dollar figure or nature of the agreement, but said that the parties “reached a resolution as to the possession of the property.”

Siniora filed a separate lawsuit in February 2026 against Baran and Alcaraz, seeking over $400,000 in damages, and estimating damages to her building from rodents at $100,000. That lawsuit, Baran said, is ongoing, but she maintains that the damages predate her tenancy.

Generally, pet stores are attractive environments for rats and mice, but Baran says the infestation was extreme when she took over Animal Connection, and that she lost thousands of dollars in inventory as a result. She said she told property managers for the Irving Street building that it “needs to be ripped out from the studs.”

Standing inside her new storefront on Clement Street, brown paper blocking its windows and piles of old cables and carpet on its unfinished floors, Baran said that she knows she has her work cut out for her.

She’s doing much of the remodeling work herself and with friends; in the next three weeks, they will have to clear out the ladders and tools strewn about to make room for fish tanks, cages, and shelves for pet supplies.

Baran pulled a sign out of a bag lying on her makeshift workbench: A bathroom door placed atop a cart. The sign was a gift from a friend, she said, for the store. She held out the side that read “open” and smiled. On it were paw prints and three small illustrations of a dog, a fish and a cat.

As for the possibility of unwelcome rodents at the new Animal Connection: “I know that they will come,” Baran said. “But I’m ready this time.”