Year In Review: No Justice Yet For Daisy & Ollie

BRISTOL, RI — It was time for another dog in the family when Daisy came along, Beth Iiams said. Their shepherd had died a year or so before. They wanted another dog, although they hadn't started looking. But then her cousin showed her pictures of two puppies, 10 weeks old. The mother was Shih Tzu, and the father was Maltese mix. They went to see them.

"My cousin got to pick," Iiams said. "She chose Daisy," the smaller of the two. But in a minute or two, realizing Daisy wanted extra helpings of love and liked to be fed by hand, they understood Daisy was going to be Beth's dog.

"She just loves love," Iiams said. For the next eight years, every morning, Iiams woke up to a love fest with Daisy. And when she came home from work, the little dog ran to greet her with a leap. Daisy would practically tackle her if she didn't sit down on the ground with her and give her kisses.

Daisy was also the pack leader. They had two other dogs, and both looked to her as the leader.

But Daisy has been gone since June. She is one 0f two dogs killed at Rhode Island groomers in 2017. The little black and white Maltese mix was choked to death by a slip lead leash after she slipped off a bench at the Dirty Dog Pet Grooming in Warren.

It was not the first such death of the year. Earlier in March 2017, Ollie, the pug, died at the Middletown Petco while groomers were trimming his nails. The Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals investigated both deaths. In Ollie's case, the cause of death remains a mystery. But the investigators found "gross negligence" in Daisy's case.

According to the report, Daisy's groomer said he left her on a bench and walked away "to prepare the bathing tub."

The tub, according to the RI SPCA's Joe Warzycha, was "approximately 12-15 feet away from the bench and there was a clear line of sight." But the groomer, David Russell, did not look over and keep an eye on Daisy. He told the animal cruelty officer he did not see the dog when she fell off the bench.

The leash tightened around her neck and hanged her. According to two veterinarians the RI SPCA consulted, it took between two and six minutes for Daisy to die.

When Russell finally did notice Daisy, he said she was dangling from the bench and unresponsive. By the time he untied her, she wasn't breathing. Russell told Warzycha he did attempt to resuscitate Daisy. But when asked if he had any training in pet first aid or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, he said no.

The groomer David Russell was "grossly negligent," Warzycha found.

As for the Petco case, the matter was complicated by the fact Ollie had a congenital condition that could make it hard for him to breathe. After Tufts University failed to come up with a definitive cause of death, the company released a statement its groomers had been found blameless.

Dr. E.F. Finocchio, of the RI SPCA, did not believe the Petco groomers ever meant to harm Ollie. But in his opinion, Ollie suffered a medical emergency, and the groomers failed to recognize the problem. During the inquiry, they claimed Ollie showed no signs of distress before he died of respiratory failure. But that account contradicted the medical evidence, he said. It would have taken a couple of minutes for Ollie to die, if his oxygen had been cut off, he estimated. At the very least, Petco employees needed better training, he said. He was also dissatisfied with the answers the groomers gave during the inquiry.

But no charges were ever pressed. To charge the groomers, the RI SPCA would have had to prove they deliberately killed these dogs out of recklessness or deliberate cruelty, Warzycha said. The standard of proof is very high, he said, and negligence, even gross negligence, isn't covered by Rhode Island law. In fact, the Petco groomers didn't have to agree to answer the RI SPCA's questions.

Rhode Island doesn't even require pet groomers to be licensed.

Shouldn't something be done about that?

Iiams believes so. There should be a change in the law, she said. There should be justice for Daisy.

After Ollie died, House Majority Leader K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-Dist. 23, Warwick) reintroduced legislation (2017-H 6054) that would require pet groomers to be licensed with the state. He spoke out again after Daisy died. But the bill seems to have stalled in committee. He is out of town this week and could not be reached for comment.

Dirty Dog and Petco are still operating.

"I had real hope that the injustice would be seen and dealt with," Iiams said. "But I am slowly losing it. This tragedy affects my family every day. I can only pray that some time soon the grooming industry will have standards. And in the meantime I pray this happens to no other family."

Courtesy Photo: Daisy/ Beth Iiams