WARNING: Some may find footage in the above video disturbing.
CALGARY- After a months-long investigation by the Calgary Humane Society, charges have been laid against a former dog groomer, who was caught on tape assaulting an animal.
A former employee of Fur Kids captured three videos on her cell phone. One shows a groomer hitting a dog with a brush, while another shows the groomer trying to chase a dog out of a kennel using a vacuum cleaner wand.
The Humane Society was called in to investigate, and were flooded with calls from concerned people after the videos surfaced.
“We appreciate the public’s patience with this case,” said Brad Nichols, manager of animal cruelty investigations. “Putting together a case as large and complicated as this one takes time, and we wanted to be sure we submitted as much evidence as possible for the Crown to consider. Due to the public nature of this case, we had a large volume of evidence to sift through and we wanted to be very thorough.”
During the investigation, the Humane Society determined that five different animals had been victimized.
“This was a unique case both from the perspective that we had video, but also that we didn’t have these animals in hand and a lot of the allegations were about incidents that happened months earlier,” Nichols explains. “It became almost a hypothetical question to a veterinarian, ‘would this allegation cause an animal to be in distress or cause unnecessary pain and suffering?'”
The owners of Fur Kids initially stood behind the employee in questions, but she has since been fired.
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The employee who took the video said she never expected the incident to go this far, but says she’s glad the Humane Society took the situation seriously.
“They went through all the evidence they possibly could and looked at everybody’s concerns, so I’m very happy with that,” says Trina Riel, adding that she hopes this will prompt anyone who sees animals being mistreated to step forward.
“Record it. Do something. Speak to somebody. It’s up to us. We’re looking after the animals, it’s up to us to speak for them.”
Mariko Dormer has now been charged with five counts of causing an animal to be in distress, and three counts of causing unnecessary pain, suffering or injury to an animal.
She is scheduled to appear in court in October.
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