Del Mar Fairgrounds officials announced Thursday they have canceled the Pet Con scheduled for Saturday, an event that attracted 10,000 people last year including many who brought their dogs, cats and other pets.

“They have breached their contract,” said fairgrounds communications officer Annie Pierce. “In addition to making zero payments, they did not have insurance, which is critical for an event with animals.”

Pet Con founder William Rilenge said Thursday that his broker sent the fairgrounds a copy of the insurance policy on Wednesday.

He tried to make the required $6,200 payment on Thursday, he said, but fairgrounds officials were uncooperative. He said he may file a restraining order on Friday in an attempt to force the fairgrounds to hold the event as planned.


“What’s unfortunate is that all the vendors are from San Diego and all the ticket holders are from San Diego,” Rilenge said.

Ads for the event were scheduled to run in Friday and Saturday’s Union-Tribune, he said. Thousands of advance tickets were sold.

About 175 exhibitors have paid fees ranging from $200 to $650, depending on their activities, to have booths at the event, he said. Those fees would have to be refunded. Rescue groups and some other nonprofits get free booths.

Rilenge said he holds 33 events a year, including Pet Expos and Pup Runs, in major cities across the United States.


“We’ve been late, but there’s never been problems,” he said.

Saturday’s event was to be the sixth annual Pet Con in San Diego. Rilenge called the closure “a nightmare.”

“There won’t be a next time around” if the event is canceled, he said. “I’ll be out of business tomorrow.”

Pierce said there were also issues collecting payments from Pet Con last year, but that this was the first time in memory that the fairgrounds has canceled an event due to a breach of contract.


Staff writer George Varga contributed to this story.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl