WINNIPEG – An investigator inspected a Transcona pet store Tuesday morning amid allegations of animal abuse after the shop went 32 days without running water.
Manager Monica Kunzelman said the investigator visited at 10 a.m. and found nothing wrong.
“He said there was nothing that concerned him,” Kunzelman said. “We take care of the animals 100 per cent.”
However, owner Tanya Morgan said the accusation was the final straw and she was closing at the end of the month.
Pet Peripherals informed its Facebook fans that it had been accused of animal abuse in a post on Sunday night.
Morgan struggled to keep her store clean and animals properly cared for after her pipes froze and the city took more than a month to restore service. An attempt to get water from a business across the back alley was unsuccessful when the hose froze and the city refused to re-install it over safety concerns about having the line run across the laneway.
RELATED: Animals die as Winnipeg pet store goes a month without running water
Morgan received a call from the province at 6:10 p.m. Monday and was told the store would be inspected Tuesday, 48 hours after the water was restored, she wrote on Facebook.
“I’m so very very sorry to say this is the final straw. Our doors will be closed March 31 at 7 p.m.,” the post says.
“Thank you City of Winnipeg for ruining my business.”
Morgan’s water was restored Sunday after a steamer was sent to her store to thaw the pipes.
Three weeks after the pipes froze, the city had tried to thaw them using an electrical thawing truck but was unsuccessful after 30 hours of trying.
The City of Winnipeg had received 2,180 reports of frozen pipes from November until Monday and had only restored water to 821 of those addresses, the municipal website says. There are 1,359 properties waiting for their pipes to be thawed, 637 of which have had city-installed hoses supplying water from neighbours’ homes. There are 722 homes with no running water.
The city is currently thawing frozen pipes reported to the city on March 1, the website says.
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