New details have emerged regarding the investigation into three dogs who died shortly after staying at a PetSmart animal boarding facility in Alexandria.
News4 has previously reported that prosecutors are not filing any criminal charges against PetSmart employees, but an attorney for the pet owners argued that while the employees may not have been responsible for the deaths, the attorneys claim the Petsmart employees delayed getting one of the dogs care which could've lead to the dog's death.
News4 recently received pages of notes from the investigation through the Freedom of Information Act and found a timeline of events on the day Andrew Noles' dog, Clark, died.
The timeline shows a 10-hour window between the time PetSmart employees noticed something was wrong with Clark and when he was finally taken to the vet.
Noles' Clark was in the care of the Alexandria PetSmart Pets Hotel on June 29, and he died later that day.
After Clark died, two employees with the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria conducted an investigation and interviewed some PetSmart employees and we obtained a copy of the notes and investigation summary.
According to the report one employee says she saw vomit in Clark's kennel at 6:15 on June 29.
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That employee told a colleague who checked and confirmed vomit and diarrhea in the kennel and then relayed that to a manager who then checked on Clark.
At 2:40 p.m., another employee noticed Clark appeared lethargic, had not eaten his food, and was panting heavily.
At 3 p.m. another employee was notified about Clark's condition and then at 3:50 that employee found Clark non-responsive. Clark was transferred to the animal hospital where he later died.
Investigators sought the medical opinion of the state doctor who conducted the necropsy on Clark, which is basically an autopsy for animals.
The Animal Welfare League’s investigation report says in part, "Dr. Wiseman stated that in her opinion, Clark had developed his illness prior to his stay at the PetSmart boarding facility and likely would have become very sick regardless of if he were at home or in a boarding facility."
"She did add that if care had been sought out sooner, it may have increased Clark’s chances of survival but only minimally."
The summary went on to say, "I do find it concerning that so much time had passed from when the original concern was reported to when care was provided, but the current animal care codes do not stipulate how soon care must be provided."
News4 reached out to PetSmart on Monday to ask about the response time but we have not heard back.
Last month, when PetSmart employees were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, the company sent News4 a statement that said in part, “We take pride in our level of care and are pleased that the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria confirmed our findings that PetSmart did not have any wrongdoing in these matters.”
Noles sent the following statement to News4:
“I’ll never understand why PetSmart delayed providing the necessary medical care to Clarke. It’s heartbreaking to think that Clarke’s last hours were filled with suffering.
I’m even more heartbroken that PetSmart also neglected critical medical concerns with Blue and Nova. It doesn’t take a trained medical professional to recognize the urgency when a dog is coughing up blood, has blood in its stool, or when its eyes are hemorrhaging. Yet, none of these dogs received the care they desperately needed, and their pet parents weren’t even informed that their dogs were in distress.
Pet parents need to be very careful about where they board their pets. I didn’t realize these businesses weren’t regulated and so many bad things could happen. I hope laws will be passed to stop businesses like PetSmart from putting profits over quality care and that the Commonwealth Attorney will start prosecuting animal cruelty cases.”
