DICKSON CITY, PA (WNEP/CNN) – Shortly after a family in Pennsylvania dropped their dog off at PetSmart for grooming, they received a call saying the dog had died after he was attacked by another dog.
Betty Miller took her 12-year-old Bichon, named Brewster, to PetSmart for grooming last Wednesday. Not long after dropping the dog off, she received an unexpected call from a veterinarian.
Brewster had been attacked by another dog in the PetSmart grooming salon. Following the incident, he was taken immediately to the emergency vet, but he was declared dead on arrival.
The emergency vet says that “resuscitation efforts were administered but proved to be unsuccessful.”
"He was loving. He was gentle. He was funny. He was like a toy, and he loved everyone,” said Miller of Brewster.
Miller says she’s unhappy with how PetSmart corporate has handled the issue and thinks there could be more safety protocols put in place to avoid tragedies like this.
"We called corporate. They did not reach out to us, and I was very angry about that. Why would you want to bring a pit bull past a small dog who's really just bait? He was bait,” Miller said.
PetSmart said in a statement that it is saddened by the loss of Brewster and is investigating the accident to determine if there were any policy or procedural violations.
“We welcome all dogs, regardless of their breed, into our grooming salons provided they are well-behaved,” the statement said.
Following the freak incident, some of Miller’s final memories of Brewster bring about heartache.
"I felt so guilty the day it happened because we would say to him, 'You want to go bye-bye?' And he'd hop in that car. He didn't know it was going to be his last ride. It was hard, very, very hard. He's been with us for 12 years. He was just a great dog,” she said.
Copyright 2017 WNEP, Betty Miller via CNN. All rights reserved.
