An Alexandria, Virginia, dog groomer was arrested Monday, charged with abusing animals in his care, with one instance leading to the death of a dog.
Kevin Sanders, a 29-year-old groomer at Your Dog’s Best Friends in the Del Ray neighborhood, was indicted by an Alexandria grand jury on one felony count of animal cruelty resulting in death and four misdemeanors related to animal cruelty.
The investigation into Sanders was launched after an anonymous tip from an employee claimed to have information on the death of one dog and the abuse of others.
After viewing video evidence from the tipster, investigators seized hundreds of hours of video footage from the business and some of that footage, prosecutors said, revealed instances of abuse that took place between July of last year and January of this year.
The case was turned over to a grand jury, which indicted Sanders last week.
Paul Haire, who owns Your Dog’s Best Friends, said in a statement the dog that died was a young golden retriever with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition that was described to Haire as a “ticking time bomb.”
Haire said the dog died of a heart attack, but admitted Sanders did not immediately notice the dog was in distress. That only happened, Haire said, after Sanders struggled to get the animal under control ahead of the grooming.
“Immediately before the heart attack, Kevin struggled to control the dog. He failed to follow our protocol of taking a dog off the table when this occurs,” Haire said. “That struggle, while not rising to the level made in the accusations against Kevin, may have caused the dog enough stress to pull the pin on the ticking time bomb.”
Haire said Sanders understood the gravity of his mistake and was removed from grooming to undergo retraining on “no fear protocols.”
“Neither before this incident or after have we seen or have had reported to us any injury or customer complaint about the treatment of dogs in our grooming regarding Kevin or anyone else. Nor has any dog since shied away from Kevin on a return visit,” Haire said.
Investigators said the owner of the dog that died didn’t file a complaint against the business, and prosecutors said it is believed that is because they were not made fully aware of what happened leading up to the animal’s death.
Sanders is being held without bail. according to Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Alexandria Bryan Porter.
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