Women sue Petco Kaneohe claiming groomers cut off their dogs’ body parts… and then Trying to glue ears back on

Video:  Two Hawaiian Women Sue Petco… Claiming Groomers Cut Off Their Dog’s Body Parts

Just a trim, thanks.

Two Hawaii animal owners are suing a local Petco location, claiming that groomers at the pet shop mutilated their dogs and, in one case, tried to cover up the hack job using glue, HawaiiNewsNow reports.

Last July, Gladys Kapuwai took her Pomeranian-Maltese mix to the Kaneohe Petco for routine grooming, but when the grandmother retrieved "Dodo," she noticed that the puppy was missing a piece of her ear.

"[She] was dried, bloody, was dry blood, everything," Kapuwai told the website. "I noticed that at home, so when I took her to the vet, the doctor had told me it looked like they tried to glue it back."

In another case, Estelle Green, the wife of attorney Michael Green, who is prosecuting both cases, picked up her dog to find that the pup’s nails were cut too short and bleeding, according to the Star Advertiser.

"The dog was filthy and the tip of the dog’s tail was cut off," Michael Green added.

"My dog, they offered another free grooming," Green also told HawaiiNewsNow. "I guess they wanted to take off other body parts."

I find this exceptionally disturbing because something similar happened to my friend at PetSmart in Ohio…

See:  Bailey’s Not So Good Trip to the Groomer (below)

Attached are some pictures of Bailey, our Yorkie.

Fall 2008

Baily and Maggie, part Shih Tzu and part Lab in fall 2010

We usually take Bailey for grooming about every 8 weeks or so. Otherwise his hair gets matted. In the winter, the snow gets packed in his fur and it becomes ice balls.

We took Bailey to PetSmart today to be groomed. On the way home from the groomer, he kept rubbing his right eye. He seemed to be squinting too.

Bailey… Don’t I look cute after being groomed?

He kept getting worse, so I called PetSmart and asked if anything had happened during the grooming session. They thought perhaps a hair had gotten in his eye. I also called our regular vet to see if he could be seen tomorrow, but they were booked.
PetSmart offered that we could come in and they would flush his eye.

We took him into PetSmart before 5pm to get the eye flushed. He laid down for a while and by 6pm his eye was swollen shut.

I called Pet Smart again and asked if there was anything they could do. They talked to the vet that they have in the store and told us to come ASAP before the vet closed.

The vet did a test and it showed that they had clipped his eye with the razor.

The vet said they call it an ulcer of the eye in this situation. The test consisted of putting a drop of solution in Bailey’s eye and then checking under a blue light to see if the eye turned green, meaning he had been clipped. His entire eye turned green, but the vet said the good thing was that the cut wasn’t very deep.

Poor little guy. We have some medicine to put in his Bailey’s eye and he has to wear one of those collars for a week. We have an appointment to re-check it after a week.

“He’s gonna be alright, but it was a surprise to find out that these things do happen. Who would think that taking your pet to the groomer could be so dangerous?”

PetSmart is picking up the bill for the vet.

Jean~

Good for PetSmart for stepping up to pay for the vet, but you have to wonder why the groomer wouldn’t have noticed that they clipped Bailey’s eye or at least that something was wrong and then have it checked by the in-house vet before sending him home?!?

My niece was a manager of one of PetSmart’s grooming salons and overall they do a good job, especially for a mega-chain, but accidents do happen and each facility and its management and staff is different. And taking your pet to a more expensive or high end salon does not mean they will be any better or that your pet will be any safer or better groomed!

It certainly is a reminder that we need to be vigilant and pay attention!!

h/t to Jean Stoner for sharing her and Bailey’s story

The moral here is stay at the store when your pet is being groomed.  Watch through the window or at least check in now and then.  And check your dog before you leave.  This does not seem to be as rare as we all would like to think.  And if it happens to you… your pet, stand-up and demand fair treatment.  Demand they pay medical bills now and in the future and any other compensation you feel is fair… and get it all in writing!  This negligence that causes pain and suffering to animals and their owners is just wrong!