Dallas Woman Buys Popular Dog Toy On Amazon. Then She Says It Almost Takes His Life

A Dallas woman bought a toy for her large Doberman online. Then she says the toy almost killed her pet.

Anastasia Lomonova (@pupstuffphoto), a TikTok content creator and dog photographer, purchased a ZippyPaws toy for her large Doberman, Tupac.

The toy was a “popcorn bucket” with squeaker kernels. The toy’s round squeaker balls were somewhat small and not attached to the larger toy. When it arrived, she gave her dog the toy and kept a close eye on him. But Tupac ended up swallowing an entire squeaker ball while playing with it.

Her dog had the toy squeaker inside its stomach for over a year, as Lomonova had little reason to believe he swallowed something at the time. Then, she noticed that Tupac wasn’t acting like his usual self, leading to vet visit after vet visit. After five or six different vets looked at the Doberman, they finally discovered what was wrong. The squeaker ball had obstructed his bowels, making him incredibly ill. Tupac unfortunately needed emergency surgery, resulting in $11,000 in vet bills.

Later, Lomonova emailed ZippyPaws to ensure that the toy was safe for all dog breeds, something she says she confirmed with them on Sept. 8. But now people are wondering whether her experience showed that Dobermans and other larger dogs can very easily swallow some components of ZippyPaws burrow toys.

The company denied that the toy was unsafe in later insurance claims despite Lomonova’s experience, implying that Tupac was not monitored correctly while playing with the toy. Since then, Lomonova has posted about her experience with the company, even generating responses on her photography page that denied her allegations.

Her video on TikTok has garnered over 469,000 views, with many people asking whether the premium pet toy company was truly liable for Tupac’s emergency room visits.

What Did the Insurance Company Say?

When Lomonova filed a claim against ZippyPaws, she says she did so out of hope that they would cover a portion of her medical bills. She alleges that the company later sent her a response via its liability insurance, the Hanover Insurance Group. In their response, they purportedly stated that Bencoo/ZippyPaws was not liable for any damages due to false advertising, as the squeaker was “appropriately sized.”

Lomonova says she responded to this letter by alleging that the company completely misrepresented her claim. She stated that the toy was inappropriately sized, not the squeaker itself. The company also reportedly said that “playtime should be supervised,” something that Lomonova also claimed was a mischaracterization of her comments.

Lomonova posted the full claim, alongside her TikTok, to Instagram. ZippyPaws responded with an Instagram comment, in which it said, “We're very sorry to hear about your dog's surgery and hope he's recovering well. We initially offered to cover a portion of the vet bills. When we couldn’t come to a resolution, your claim was submitted to our liability insurance for an independent review.”

ZippyPaws also referenced a Google Review purportedly posted by Lomonova where it made a full statement, stating, “We must reinforce the critical safety warning on our packaging: ‘For supervised play only. Remove tags before use. Discard if the toy becomes damaged.’ In this instance, the length of time the ingestion went undetected—as noted in your correspondence—falls outside of the product's responsible usage guidelines.”

She replied on Instagram, saying, “[T]he ‘portion’ you offered to cover did not come close to the actual cost of care, nor did it account for the severity of the incident. Your insurance denial states my dog swallowed a squeaker, despite extensive documentation showing it was an entire plush ball from your burrow toy. That mischaracterization alone shows the claim was not reviewed carefully. This wasn’t a goodwill dispute… To add insult to injury you offered to reimburse the $16 I paid for the toy…. I hope you can see how distasteful that was.”

Commenters Take Issue With Toy Company

Many ZippyPaws toys contain smaller parts, based on the company’s website. Some commenters claim their dogs also ate these small toys that were not directly attached to the larger toy.

One wrote, “This EXACT thing happened to us with the ZippyPaws milk and cookies burrow toy you showed in the vid! Here is the removed cookie from our pup's tummy (thankfully we saw her swallow it and got it removed the same day).”

Others said that Lomonova shouldn't have given her dog any toy that was smaller than its mouth to begin with.

“Ma’am as someone that works in emergency vet med, even that plastic ball shouldn’t be given to a large dog,” wrote one commenter. “It can easily get lodged in the throat and cause a choking hazard.”

Others echoed this sentiment, saying that @pupstuffstudio was partially in the wrong for giving her dog the toy, especially after seeing the smaller “popcorn kernel” squeakers attached to it.

“I have total sympathy for you and your pup going through this; but any toy, bone, or chew that can completely fit inside your dog’s mouth is a big no no and an automatic choking hazard. Think of [it] like a baby putting something completely in their mouth,” added another. “My sister’s 20lb dogs have a plush toy that [is the] same size and I feel like they’re the dog size limit that can safely play with a toy that size(at 20lbs).”

Lomonova replied to this commenter, saying she figured the toy would be bigger when ordering it. “Absolutely. That’s why I made this video. The toy itself looks like it’s perfectly sized for a big dog. I didn’t account for the balls,” Lomonova reiterated. “I’m hoping this will warn others and encourage the manufacturers to make strong[er] warnings.”

We’ve reached out to ZippyPaws via email and Lomonova via TikTok direct message for comment. We’ll let you know if either party responds.

@pupstuffphoto