PetSmart groomer fired for manhandling puppy
This is the shocking moment a dog groomer was secretly filmed hitting a tiny one-year-old puppy.
Distressing footage shows the PetSmart worker yanking at Shih Tzu Luna as she clipped and combed her coat.
Horrified owner Brooke Vowers said the pooch has been left terrified ever since she was handled roughly during the service in Katy, Texas.
The 22-year-old had dropped Luna off on Thursday for four hours of pampering at the store and was told she had been a “sweetie” when she picked her up.
But as she was leaving the shop, fellow customer Terah Leder said she had seen the groomer handling the pup roughly.
Brooke said: “She said she had been waiting for me because she had witnessed the groomer mistreating my dog terribly.
“I was in shock and thanked her for the info. I got in my car and called the groomer asking about this.
“She said Luna was ‘biting her’ and needed extra force and she thought the girl misunderstood how dog grooming was.
“She explained how she loved dogs and had been doing this for ten years and apologised.
“‘I told her thank you and that it must have been a misunderstanding, but I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
But Brooke was stunned when Terah sent her footage showing the groomer hitting and yanking at the dog.
Brooke said: “I felt very betrayed that I trusted her with my dog and paid for a service.
“I think she should never be allowed to work with pets again and no one else should go through this.
“Luna is OK, she’s just scared. She has been acting timid ever since and she hid under the bed today, which she never does.”
Brooke shared the shocking footage on Facebook and it has since been viewed more than 399,000 times.
PetSmart confirmed the groomer has been fired, saying: “This treatment is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The associate is no longer with PetSmart.”
But Brooke now feels they should install cameras in the grooming rooms to prevent this happening to other dogs.
Terah, who filmed the incident, said: “It was hard to watch. If I sat down at a hair salon and someone was pulling my hair like that we would have had a fist fight. It was ridiculous.”