MASSACHUSETTS -- Guy Reynolds loved his bulldog, Cooper, so much, he couldn’t stand the idea of Cooper being alone during the day on his 6th birthday.
So with his normal dog day care in Hull closed for a few days last week, Reynolds decided Thursday to take Cooper to a Weymouth facility, Land of Pawz, while he and his wife were at work.
By that afternoon, Cooper was dead.
“I’ve never had a sense of emptiness like I do now,” said Reynolds, who had owned Cooper since he was a puppy. “Going home that day and having to put his pillow away and his dog dish, it was heart wrenching.”
Reynolds said he’s preparing to file a lawsuit against Land of Pawz, saying employees at the facility failed to look after Cooper and didn’t respond appropriately when the dog died.
An employee at Land of Pawz declined to comment on Cooper’s death Monday afternoon, and the owner, Tom Fleming, did not return a request for comment.
[Fleming did release a statement on his website, saying: "Cooper's owner was contacted immediately, and indicated that he was nearby and would come to take Cooper for emergency medical treatment. Had we been unable to immediately reach Cooper's owner, we would have brought Cooper to the veterinary center in Weymouth. This procedure is outlined in our contractual agreements with pet owners.
"Cooper's death, although unfortunate and incredibly heartbreaking, was in no way caused by or contributed to by Land of Pawz."
Why would you sit around, waiting for the owner to arrive? By the time you wait for him to get there, precious moments have passed. And then, of course, when the owner arrived, he had to find a place to park, come inside the business, go to the outdoor area and retrieve his dog, which is lying under a blanket with other dogs milling about. He then had lug his Bulldog back inside, through the building, out to the car, get in the car, drive through traffic to the ER, find a place to park, rush inside --- only to be told his dog had already been dead for 45 minutes.]
Reynolds, a Hull resident who owns the Cohasset Sports Complex, said employees at Land of Pawz did not call Weymouth’s animal control officer after they found Cooper slumped over in the facility’s yard Thursday and didn’t try to take the dog to the VCA South Shore Animal Hospital in South Weymouth.
When Reynolds arrived at Land of Pawz on Thursday afternoon, he said he found Cooper’s body under a blanket in the yard.
“It was his birthday. I just didn’t want him to spend his birthday alone,” he said. “I never imagined that when I arrived that they would just leave him in the yard with a blanket over him, with other dogs walking around.”
Reynolds said he rushed Cooper to the VCA hospital, where the staff tried unsuccessfully to revive the dog with chest compressions and a tracheotomy. By the time Cooper was taken to the hospital, Reynolds said 45 minutes had passed since the dog died.
The veterinarian pinned the cause of death on heat exhaustion, Reynolds said.
Weymouth’s animal control officer could not be reached Monday.
Leslie Badger, the animal control officer for Hingham and Hull, said she was appalled by Cooper’s treatment at Land of Pawz. She said the staff at the day care should have known that bulldogs can easily overheat and made sure he was kept cool on a hot day like Thursday.
“A responsible kennel or boarding facility, they would know the breed of dogs coming in and would be aware of what that dog would tolerate,” said Badger, who knew Cooper from her visits to Sunshine Pet Parlor in Hull, where Cooper stayed nearly every weekday.
(Patriot Ledger - Sept 4, 2012)
