A kennel which was accused of wrapping a customer’s dead dog in tape has spoken out about why they did it.
In December 27, 2018, Kirsten Kinch, from Dublin, entrusted a boarding kennels to look after her dog, Nova, while she travelled to Iceland with her family.
Although the dog was taking steroids for colitis, Nova was said to be in good health when Kirsten left.
However, when the owner returned just a few days later to collect the Husky, staff at the kennels informed her that the dog had been discovered bleeding in her kennel, and had later died.
Kirsten was met with a shocking sight when she was taken to see her beloved pet, who had been wrapped in a plastic bag, which was covered in tape.
The kennels have since spoken out about the situation, claiming they had administered all of Nova’s drugs correctly, and that her body was tightly sealed on the advice of a vet.
Speaking to the Metro, Paddy Cullen, from P&E boarding kennels, said the dog had died on her third day in the kennels. He implied she had parvo virus, which is a contagious viral illness.
He explained the dog was wrapped up to prevent any of the other dogs in the kennels from being infected, saying:
We went down to let out the dogs first thing in the morning but when we got there, the dog was dead. There was a big pile of blood from her behind.
I rang the vet and was told to wrap up the dog so as not to infect the other dogs.
What other way could we do it? We were concerned about the spread of parvo virus. We were told to seal the bag so nothing could escape.
It was such a big dog that we couldn’t put the body in the freezer and we were expecting the family back from holiday in a few hours.
Kirsten shared her version of the events on Facebook, where she accused the kennels of treating the dog with ‘little care and empathy’.
She added:
There are no words to describe how upsetting and traumatic it was to carry her to the car and take her home in what seemed a completely inhuman way.
Paddy told the Metro that since Kirsten took to Facebook, the company has been the target of hate mail.
He said:
Since the lady put it on Facebook, we have had nothing but hate mail and death threats and people saying they will burn down our house.
I am very sorry that her dog passed and it happened to pass while she was here with us.
Nova’s body was sent for a post mortem, which gave the cause of death as internal bleeding, though it was inconclusive about whether or not the steroids had been administered correctly.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.