It was the first time that Heath and Abby had been left at this pet grooming salon, and their mom—a friend of a friend—couldn’t have made her instructions clearer: Do not put the dogs under the dryer.
The groomer never got the message.
But the dogs’ dad got one: a phone call telling him that they were ready to go home. Can you imagine his shock when he arrived and found that Heath, a former racing greyhound—and a loving member of the family for four years—had “expired”? A punch to the gut couldn’t have felt worse.
Expired? They still don’t know how long Heath—who loved going on long pontoon-boat rides—was left under the dryer. Instead of answering the family’s questions, the store sent flowers and a card and donated to a greyhound rescue group.
Heath’s remains were whisked off to an emergency vet at a university 40 miles away. That was the store’s idea—to see if he had any preexisting conditions. But the necropsy results were as clear as the instructions to the groomer had been: Heat exhaustion killed him.
That was six years ago, and while losing Heath was hard enough on his family, there’s another reason why they’re still hurting: Every time there’s a report that another dog has been killed or injured by a groomer, it reopens the wound. And it happens with alarming frequency.
Last month, a dog in Texas died days after her guardian picked her up—Lexi’s tongue was blue, her gums were purple and she was breathing heavily. In April, a corgi named Abby died in New Jersey—her guardian got a call an hour after dropping her off telling him that he could pick up her body. Before that, Scruffles—a healthy, 8-year-old bulldog—and a dog named Ranger died within days of each other at another New Jersey salon. Skip, a Jack Russell terrier, went into fatal cardiac arrest while being groomed in California. And Colby, a golden retriever, was left under a dryer too long in Virginia.
Those dryers can reach temperatures as high as 135 degrees.
Even when dogs aren’t killed, they sometimes leave groomers maimed or psychologically scarred. When a woman in Seattle took her shih tzu, Jasmine, home, she discovered that her ear had been cut off and glued back in place. A groomer in Texas was filmed yanking another shih tzu, Boo, around by the face and ear.
What can we do about this?
The first step is to learn how to groom your dog yourself or hire a groomer who will come to your home. That way, everyone is always under your watchful eye. If that isn’t possible, insist on being present during the grooming, and ensure that your dog is air-dried. Cage dryers can malfunction or be left on inadvertently and become deadly hot. It bears repeating: Never, ever leave your dog with a groomer if you can’t be there, too.
Before deciding where to take your dog, ask if the groomer is a graduate of a training program or belongs to a trade organization and if any animals have died or been injured at the salon. And ask the Better Business Bureau if any complaints have been filed against the company. Also, request references and—this goes without saying—be sure that the groomer is experienced.
If your dog is injured or—God forbid—killed, you can file a small-claims suit or lawsuit. And go to the media: A TV report or newspaper story can prevent future tragedies. Public awareness is a powerful tool.
I’d like to see groomers slow down during grooming, but I’m not holding my breath. Profits are always the top priority at big-box pet stores, even if it means running salons like assembly lines or using the fish, reptiles, birds and other small animals they get from filthy, abusive animal mills to lure customers into spending a fortune on tanks, cages and anything else just to fatten the bottom line.
We should all refuse to buy anything, even a bag of dog food, from stores that sell animals because every dollar spent in these places—including at the grooming salon—helps perpetuate animal suffering.
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Do you want to be part of creating a kinder, more inclusive society?
Photo credit: Unsplash