"Had I known he was as bad as he was, I would have flown home immediately," said Allison Yates about the condition of her family's 7-year-old Great Dane, Beauvine, when they picked him up from a 9-day stay in boarding this week.
The Yates selected the PetSmart Hotel on Adams Road in Rochester Hills because Beauvine is a nervous dog and they offered a soundproof room with private time for their beloved pet.
And Allison Yates didn't think there was a serious issue, or one that couldn't be easily remedied with some Imodium, when someone from PetSmart called four days into Beauvine's stay in boarding to say that had diarrhea and had thrown up.
Yates thought it was a one-time event for Beauvine because he's a nervous dog who takes Prozac daily.
But Yates says what PetSmart employees were not telling them is that their dog wasn't even eating.
Yates say their dog went from 138 pounds to 110 in the span of nine days. And when they picked him up he was lethargic and covered in feces and vomit. But Beauvine's large comfy bed that they took back from PetSmart was clean.
Yates says employees later told them that they removed his bed to clean it but didn't put it back because it took a long time to dry. But Yates says that left her large dog's joints swollen.
On Monday, the next day, the Yates took their dog to his vet where they were told he was dehydrated and it appears he'd been neglected for a week, and that because he wasn't eating, his stomach acids had made him sick.
The Yates say PetSmart had a responsibility to be honest about Beauvine's deteriorating condition.
And they find it hard to believe that no one took the time to warm up to him in order to help ease his anxiety.
They say PetSmart workers did not even take him to see their in-house veterinarian at Banfield Pet Hospital.
"I don't want this to happen to any other dog," said Allison Yates.
A representative from PetSmart's corporate media team released the following statement Thursday:
The health, safety and well-being of pets in our care is our top priority, and we immediately launched an internal investigation to better understand what happened with Beauvine. We have high standards of care in place and are actively gathering more information to determine any policy violations. We will remain in close contact with Beauvine’s pet parent as we learn more.
