A woman’s toy poodle died during a PetSmart grooming appointment in East Liberty, Pennsylvania in 2020, and she has filed suit against the company and two of its former employees as a result of her dog’s death.
Per WPXI, AJ Ross of Pittsburgh claimed in her suit that she had brought in her 12-year-old poodle Kobe to the Centre Avenue PetSmart in November 2020 for a routine nail trim. After 10 minutes with PetSmart employees, Ross came to pick up Kobe only to find her dog was dead.
“As I go in, I see him, lifeless on the grooming table, the groomers are standing there gawking,” Ross told local outlet Channel 11 in 2021. “The managers are standing there, no one’s doing anything, and I’m, I’m just freaking out like, what happened to my dog, and they...they said he fainted. He passed out.”
Recovered surveillance footage from the grooming area shows PetSmart employees Julie Miller and Elizabeth Doty tethering Kobe into place, with the suit claiming the tethers were tied together “to create an arrangement not unlike a hangman’s noose if Kobe were to lose his footing.” The tethers asphyxiated Kobe as a result.
“Kobe was tethered using two different tethers, causing his neck to be pulled in two opposite directions as well as hyperextension of the neck,” the court documents read. “The hyperextension of the neck as well as the lack of contact between Kobe’s paws and the grooming table, led to Kobe’s airway being crushed which resulted in his death.”
The suit also alleges Miller and Doty and PetSmart managers Heather Rowe and Shapan Stonge claimed Kobe collapsed on the grooming table without cause, and responded by offering to help Ross adopt another dog. The documents accuse the company and employees of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“We are heartbroken by and truly sorry for the loss of Kobe,” PetSmart wrote in a statement. “After this terrible accident, we launched an internal investigation and found unintended failure to adhere to our pet safety processes. Additionally, we cooperated with an external investigation, terminated the responsible associates and facilitated an autopsy to help provide answers.
Miller and Doty are awaiting trial for animal cruelty charges and animal neglect charges.
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