Your Canine’s Greatest Pals in Del Ray.
Police in Alexandria arrested an worker of Your Canine’s Greatest Pals yesterday, on felony animal cruelty costs.
The groomer, Kevin Sanders, is charged with one rely of cruelty for the loss of life of a canine in his care and 4 misdemeanor costs for alleged abuse of different canines. He was working at Your Canine’s Greatest Pals, a canine day care and grooming facility in Del Ray, till his arrest yesterday, in accordance with a press launch by the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria.
The costs are the results of a six-month-long investigation performed by the Alexandria Police Division and the Animal Welfare League after they acquired a tip from a former worker of Your Canine’s Greatest Pals, in regards to the alleged cruelty.
Megan Hess, the director of engagement on the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, stated the group is contracted with the town to take experiences of animal cruelty and abuse. On this case, the group collaborated with Alexandria police to acquire proof after the previous worker reached out in December 2024.
In keeping with the press launch from the Animal Welfare League, the previous worker offered investigators with preliminary video proof of alleged animal cruelty by Sanders, resulting in the seizure of greater than 600 hours of video footage in early 2025. Final week, a grand jury licensed costs towards Sander and issued a warrant for his arrest.
He was charged with one felony cruelty cost within the loss of life of a canine named Abigail final summer time. The canine’s house owners didn’t file a grievance towards Your Canine’s Greatest Pals on the time of Abigail’s loss of life, as a result of they have been unaware of its circumstances, in accordance with the press launch from the Animal Welfare League.
Your Canine’s Greatest Pals declined to touch upon the costs towards Sanders however posted an announcement to its social media pages in regards to the incident written by proprietor Paul Haire.
Within the assertion, Haire wrote {that a} “younger golden retriever in Kevin’s take care of grooming died whereas on the desk from what a vet confirmed was a coronary heart assault” and that the vet informed the ability, “she was sure the canine had succumbed to a congenital coronary heart defect.”
The assertion added that Sanders struggled to regulate the canine instantly earlier than the center assault and broke protocol by not taking it off the grooming desk. “That wrestle, whereas not rising to the extent made within the accusations towards Kevin, might have triggered the canine sufficient stress to drag the pin on the ticking time bomb.”
Within the assertion, Haire stated that after the incident Sanders was retrained, including that the ability acquired no different complaints or experiences about how they deal with canines both earlier than or after that incident.
In keeping with the press launch by the Animal Welfare League, a earlier grievance was filed towards Your Canine’s Greatest Pals in 2021, however an investigation discovered inadequate proof of wrongdoing. Animal groomers, like animal-boarding amenities, are solely topic to inspection if a grievance is filed, Hess famous.
These sorts of experiences could be scary for canine house owners. The Animal Welfare League of Arlington has a checklist of questions that individuals can use to guage whether or not or not a facility is secure for his or her pet.
“The principle level that individuals ought to know is that they’re liable for asking these questions, that there isn’t a oversight or licensing with a few of these amenities,” Hess says. “So it’s utterly incumbent on the pet proprietor to ask questions, and in the event that they’re not getting the right solutions, to think about different choices.”
