ALEXANDRIA, Va. (7News) — The chief animal control officer for Alexandria told 7News Tuesday that he is hopeful to soon finish an investigation into the deaths of three dogs that all boarded at the Potomac Yard PetSmart in June.
“It’s still an ongoing investigation. We’re getting close to a conclusion I think,” said Tony Rankin. Besides being animal control chief Rankin is also the Chief Operating Officer of the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria.
Over the weekend 7News reported that the Animal Welfare League was now investigating the death of a third dog that stayed at the “Petshotel” at PetSmart in mid to late June. All three dogs died within four days of each other.
READ MORE | ‘Sad all the way around’: Third dog death linked to Alexandria PetSmart
An Aussiedoodle named Clarke died while staying at the Petshotel at PetSmart, while the other two dogs died within days of staying there:
- Clarke stayed from June 27-29 and died on June 29
- Blu stayed from June 18-24 and died on June 27
- Lily stayed from June 18-22 and died on June 26
On Tuesday, Rankin said Lily was around 16 years old and her owner wanted to remain anonymous. He said Lily became sick while staying at the Petshotel, and PetSmart employees took the dog to a veterinarian. When Lily was ready to be released, PetSmart recommended Lily no longer stay at the Petshotel due to her old age. Lily was then released into the care of a friend of her owner, then died after returning to the owner’s home.
7News previously spoke to the owners of Clarke and Blu, who both said they strongly believe their previously healthy dogs’ deaths were connected to staying at the PetSmart.
READ MORE | Families mourn death of 2 dogs after stay at Virginia PetSmart, investigation underway
In a statement, PetSmart said it is heartbroken by the deaths. But despite the fact that all three dogs stayed at the Potomac Yard store during a similar timeframe and all of them died within days of each other, PetSmart is denying the deaths were connected to its PetsHotel.
“Based on what we’ve learned, these three incidents are each unique with different causes ranging from underlying conditions to older age – not due to the time in our care,” PetSmart said in the statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are proactively conducting hands-on retraining with our Potomac Yard associates to ensure our best-in-class safety standards are always adhered to.”
Meanwhile, Rankin said until final test results come in on Clarke, he still cannot say exactly what led to his and the other dogs’ deaths. He was able to have a necropsy – essentially an animal autopsy – done on Clarke, but the owners of Blu and Lily disposed of their dogs’ remains before realizing other dogs had also died.
Rankin says among other tests he ordered a test to see if Clarke had a virus, but he is unsure if that may have led to Clarke or the other dogs’ deaths. He says even if a virus is found, he does not believe there was widespread transmission of it to many dogs. At the time Clarke died, Rankin believes more than 100 animals were staying at the PetSmart facility.
READ MORE | Can you know if a boarding facility is safe for your pet?
Rankin said he has pretty much ruled out the possibility someone harmed the dogs on purpose.
“We try to go in there at some point within every 48 hours,” he said. “We’re doing it at random intervals, so we’ll go in in the mornings, we’ll go in in the afternoons.”
In an email last week PetSmart said Sonia King, the owner of Blu, chose to have him put down due to a medical condition. But Sonia said that was absolutely not true, saying Blu died shortly after arriving for an emergency visit to an animal hospital days after staying at PetSmart. Rankin confirmed Sonia’s account Tuesday, saying records he’d examined showed that King had not chosen to have Blu put down.
7News reached out to PetSmart about that Tuesday, and the company replied, saying “We included that detail because it was relayed to us, however, it is not documented in our system so we cannot corroborate.”
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