LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A Las Vegas couple is mourning the loss of their dog Nico, who was found unresponsive at the boarding facility where he was staying. The owners suspect heat stroke as the reason for his death.
“He was two years old, he was funny, he was goofy, he was so sweet with other animals, other people,” said Daniela Silva, one of Nico’s owners.
“I just wanted Nico to live a long life and see his gray whiskers, so every day I tried so hard to make sure he was loved,” said Ted Taylor, another of Nico’s owners.
With a trip to Hawaii coming up, Silva and Taylor decided on Doggie District Silverado to board their dog.vThey dropped him off around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, June 30.
“They called him and were telling him that he was unresponsive, that he was turning blue,” said Silva.
“Basically, he’s already gone. And I’m like, ‘It hasn’t even been an hour, what do you mean?’” recalled Taylor.
“What they told him is that they took him outside to potty for no longer than five minutes, and then took him back to his room, which has a TV, bed, AC, left him in there, and then they went off and did whatever and came back and saw him unresponsive in his room,” said Silva.
FOX5 reached out to Doggie District, and a representative told us their potty break protocols take high temperatures into account.
The Doggie District representative said Nico was let outside, supervised, twice, for less than five minutes each.
“Not even an hour after we dropped him off, they called us saying that he was gone, basically,” said Silva. “and that the girl there, worker, had to put our dog into her own personal car and take him to a hospital that they don’t even have connections to.”
The Doggie District representative said in an emergency, the staff will transport the pet to the closest veterinarian accepting animals, adding that in this case, their primary established vet was not accepting patients, so they took Nico to another pet hospital.
“The doctor specifically in his own words said he was ‘grossly healthy.’ He was two years old, but that when he arrived, his body temperature was 106, and that was just because he was already in the car cooled in the girl’s car. So before then, God knows how much heat was actually trapped in his body,” said Silva.
“He was just perfect. And now since Doggie District is just negligent and has no sense of training or anything, my boy’s gone. And I’m going to have remorse for the rest of my life,” said Taylor.
The Doggie District representative said employees are trained for emergency situations when they’re hired, and the training is repeated periodically. In fact, the Silverado location held a refresher training three weeks before Nico’s death.
Nico’s owners said they do plan on filing a police report.
Doggie District’s released a full statement on the situation:
“Our top priority is the health, safety, and happiness of our pets. We are saddened by the passing of one of our guests this weekend. We are in contact with the pet parent and are reviewing this situation carefully. Our goal will always be to provide our guests with the best possible care to ensure pets are happy and safe. We want to assure our pet parents and the community that we are taking this incident very seriously,” it said.
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