Family Believes Groomer’s Negligence Killed Pet

HORIZON CITY, TX — It’s been a month since one family lost a beloved pet, but thegrieving continues as if theanimal died yesterday.

Amanda Juarez saysherschnauzer shouldn’t have died the way they think it did: at a groomer’s shop, after thedog had been given a bath.

Juarez said she took her “Romo” to a different pet salon after she saw an advertisement that promised a sizeable discount. “Normally we’d go to a shop on Montwood, but this place was in our neighborhood, and it promised something like $20 off,” she said.

“Romo” got the full treatment at Paw Spa on Horizon Blvd., in Horizon City. Juarez was expecting a call when the dog was ready, but instead, she said the groomers called her to saythe dog had”some kind of seizure” and they tookthe animalto a veterinary clinic in Socorro for treatment.

“My husband, my daughter and I headed over there right away and when we got there, Romo was gone,” she recounted, tearfully.

Juarez said she thinks the groomer left the dog in an automatic dryer for too long. She said her mother, who’s also a groomer, came up with that theory.

When ABC 7 asked the grooming shop as to what happened, a co-owner, who identified himself only as “Omar,” said the animal was put in an automatic dryer, but he insisted the animal was never left alone.

Juarez said there’s no pre-existing medical explanation for Romo’s death. A necropsy, which is the equivalent to an autopsy, proves it,Juarez said.”It doesn’t give any answers except for what we already know, that our dog was fine when he went in there,” she said.

The medical report also shows the dog didn’t show any outward signs of physical trauma, Juarez said. But the veterinarian did find the dog “had a lot of blood in his throat,” she said.

“He died because he couldn’t breathe. Why he couldn’t breathe, we don’t know,” she said.

“I just know my dog shouldn’t have died that day,” Juarez said.

Juarez told ABC-7 she wants fellow dog owners to take the time to get to know a groomerand notentrust a family pet to a stranger.