A dog trainer in Chesapeake, Virginia, is facing criminal charges after being accused of mistreating animals, including her own. She is charged with animal cruelty and multiple counts of failing to provide proper food, water, and shelter. Two former friends say they found crates caked with feces and cans of pet food filled with fly larvae. Investigators say a dog died in her care.
Sign the petition urging the Commonwealth's Attorney for the City of Chesapeake to pursue a lifetime ban on animal ownership, a lifetime ban on running any dog training, boarding, or daycare business, and mandatory mental health counseling.
The charges stem from the care of her own pets, but a former client says her dogs suffered too. She says she paid about $8,000 for a three-week board-and-train program and went to bring her dogs home early. She says they had lost weight, were extremely dehydrated, and were covered in dirt, and that she barely recognized one of them. She says another dog became so aggressive toward her other pet that she had to surrender it. The trainer denies the allegations and says she was not caring for the animals at the time, and those claims will be tested in court.
If these allegations are true, someone who treats animals this way needs real help, not just punishment. Mandatory counseling would address what led to this, so she gets support and future animals are protected. A lifetime ban on owning animals, and on running any training or boarding business, would make sure no other dog is ever handed over to her care.
People hand their dogs to a trainer because they trust that someone will care for them better than they could.
Sign the petition and demand the Commonwealth's Attorney for the City of Chesapeake pursue lifetime bans and mandatory counseling in this case.
