SARASOTA, Fla. – A Sarasota dog groomer has been accused of punching, shaking and throwing dogs and cats in his care.
Police arrested Dina Stevens, 41, the owner of a Woof Gang Bakery and Dog Grooming franchise located at 1129 S. Tamiami Trail, on multiple animal cruelty and animal abuse charges.
Officials said former store employees not only saw Stevens abusing the animals while he was grooming them, but on several occasions, they had to intervene.
Sarasota Police Department investigators say it was all caught on surveillance camera.
“To press play, rewind, pause and explain in detail the violence that occurs in this business is difficult for anyone,” said Cynthia McLaughlin with the Sarasota Police Department.
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A former employee told detectives she saw Stevens hit the cats, drag them around and turn them upside down before tethering them to be fixed. The employee said it was dangerous to tie up a cat because it could break its neck.
Another former employee went on to tell detectives that he also saw Stevens swing a cat against a wall after the cat scolded him for petting it. The employee said she intervened, took the cat from Stevens and continued to bathe and groom it.
That witness also told officers that he and Stevens bought several puppies, including French bulldogs, to sell. The couple, according to an affidavit, left the French bulldog puppies in a bathtub overnight because Stevens said they were easier to clean in the morning.
The report states that puppy pads were placed under the tub and a metal crate was placed on top of the puppies. The employee said Stevens’ mother contacted her the next day and said one of the French Bulldog puppies had died, and she took it to the vet for a necropsy.
Stevens is the owner of a Woof Gang Bakery and Dog Grooming franchise.
Another former employee told detectives that while her co-workers would come in on weekends to care for the puppies, Stevens would not care for them.
The former employee added that the puppies were living in unsanitary ‘horrendous’ conditions which included being left in their own faeces and urine until another groomer cleaned them. He said the puppy that died was suffocated, and its body was kept in a box at the store until Stevens could figure out what to do with it.
Another former employee said she also intervened when she saw Stevens abusing pets.
He recalled an incident where Stevens was grooming a red doodle that peed on itself because it was afraid of the blow-dryer and needed to be washed. She told officers that Stevens became frustrated with the dog, grabbed it by the scruff and threw it into the tub.
After washing the dog, the witness said Stevens grabbed it by the scruff, threw it on a drying table, and forced the blow-dryer into the dog’s face.
“There’s no way to know how long this has been going on. The 5 incidents we saw on surveillance video were just 17 days last year,” McLaughlin said.
Customers also reported that their pets behaved abnormally after being picked up from the business.
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Current and former customers say it’s a lot to process.
“I was shocked, and then I was completely devastated, knowing that I had an intuition that my dog’s behavior was acting different when I put him down there,” Bethany Simmons said.
Simmons spoke to FOX 13 in hopes of helping other pet owners.
As a social worker, Simmons saw behaviors that weren’t natural in her dog.
She stopped taking her 5-year-old dog, Mango, to Stevens after noticing a change in his behavior.
“With his symptoms, he was really shaking when he went in there, which was unusual behavior and there were times he peed on the floor. That was something I never witnessed. He’s been to other groomers so there’s just a little bit of a concern, a red flag. ,” Simmons said.
Detectives, using a search warrant, obtained video from the store showing the abuse. They added that the video appears to support allegations that Stevens beat, angered, and threw animals while he was grooming them.
Courtesy: Sarasota Police Department
Woof Gang Bakery and Grooming sent the following statement to FOX 13 in response to Stevens’ arrest:
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“The allegations against Ms. Stevens, a former franchisee who independently owned and operated a location in Sarasota, violated every tenant of our mission at Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming, as well as our strict procedures in operation. Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming has a zero-tolerance policy for abuse of any kind. We want to make it clear that Woof Gang does not condone, condone, or in any way endorse such abuse. behavior. While we cannot comment on the details of the police investigation, we can confirm that we have contacted the Sarasota Sheriff’s Department and have taken immediate action to terminate Ms. Stevens’ franchise agreement. The locations of Woof Gang is independently owned and operated. This incident does not reflect on our brand, our franchise owners, or the high standards of love and care for pets that Woof Gang represents to all other locations. As fellow pet owners, we focus on the spirit and bond we share with our pets and always make health and safety a top priority. Our thoughts are with the community and, most importantly, the pets and pet owners involved.”
Stevens was arrested on five counts of felony aggravated animal abuse and five counts of felony animal cruelty. This is not his first arrest either. Officials said Stevens is from North Fort Myers, where he has a long criminal history, including charges of grand theft, battery and domestic violence.
Anyone with information on this case is asked to email Detective Sullivan at [email protected] or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers by calling 941-366-TIPS or online at www. sarasotacrimestoppers.com.
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