Woman Sues Petsmart Over Strangulation Death Of Pet

An average grooming appointment at a PetSmart quickly turned into a nightmare — one that resulted in the death of a beloved pup, according to a new lawsuit.

AJ Ross is suing the pet store over the 2020 death of her toy poodle, Kobe — which happened shortly after she dropped him off for a routine nail clipping at a PetSmart in Pittsburgh, PA.

In the lawsuit, she lays blame on the store’s employees — and cites the store’s surveillance video as the most compelling evidence supporting her case.

The footage is heartbreaking. You see Ross drop the pup with the staff, having already placed a muzzle on his mouth, and then leave. The workers then take the dog to the back and lift him onto a table.

That’s where things went wrong. The employees put 2 different harnesses around Kobe’s neck — one from the top and one from the bottom — seemingly to keep the pooch in place while they try to work on its nails.

Kobe thrashes around, and they eventually turn him over on his side for easier access. Kobe quickly goes limp, the workers try to rouse him but to no avail.

Ross says when she returned a mere 10 minutes later, she discovered her dog was dead — and she believes the way the PetSmart employees harnessed Kobe during the nail clipping caused the dog to lose consciousness and die.

According to documents, Ashley claims PetSmart has allowed this to happen to other pets over the years, at least 47 have been killed by PetSmart groomers since 2009 — and now she wants damages.

A rep for PetSmart said: “All of us are heartbroken by and truly sorry for the loss of Kobe. Following this terrible accident in 2020, we immediately launched an internal investigation and cooperated with the authorities involved. In response, we terminated the associates who violated our pet safety policies and did not meet our high standards of care.”

“We proudly perform more than 13 million grooming services per year and the actions of these two associates do not represent the standard of care provided by our more than 10,000 salon associates.”