PIKE CO., Ind. (WFIE) – The owner of a dog grooming business is in jail after police say she tortured the dogs in her care while intoxicated.
Police say in June, a woman told them she called the owner of Doggie Styles Pet Grooming Salon on E. Main Street in Petersburg.
Driving by you probably wouldn’t think anything suspicious of the salon.
It has colorful signs, it’s on Main Street and it even has pictures of real dogs in the window.
People like Karla Martinez though, have learned not to judge a grooming business by its building.
“It’s a sad situation, you just can’t trust anybody,” said dog owner Karla Martinez.
Martinez took her dog Bo to this pet salon almost two weeks ago to be groomed.
When she picked him up, she says he was acting strange.
“I was holding him and he was nervous. Every time she would walk by him, he would growl and show his teeth and that’s not Bo,” Martinez said.
The woman who originally reported the abuse says she asked about working at the business, and the owner, Christy Aufdemorte, asked her to come in right away.
She says when she arrived, there were several small dogs shaking and trembling.
She says Aufdemorte seemed drunk or ‘on something’.
The woman says she was asked to wash the dogs and Aufdemorte told her she was being too gentle.
She says she was told to put shampoo in their faces, and spray their faces with a high pressure sprayer.
The woman says Aufdemorte was bathing the dogs with cold water and drying them with cold air.
While she was there, she says dog owners were calling and saying their dogs were supposed to be ready hours ago.
The woman says she saw Aufdemorte cut dogs’ nails too short, causing them to bleed.
She says she also saw her nick a dog’s ear, grab animals by their scruffs, and slam a dog’s head down.
She says Aufdemorte told her the dog was “used to being abused.”
The woman says she confronted Aufdemorte about it, told her she could keep her money and left.
Martinez says one of Aufdemorte’s employees eventually called her to confess what she’d seen with her dog specifically.
“Christy put a noose around his neck and every time he would do something she would push him off the table and would hang him. He would hang there until his tongue would turn purple and his eyes would buldge out. Then she’d get him back up on the table and hit him on the head with her shears and tell him he needs to go to heaven,” Martinez said.
Police say when they called Aufdemorte about the claims, she told them it was disrespectful to call her at 6 p.m.
They say when asked about animal abuse, she began crying and yelling.
Officers say she told them there were “evil people” living in town that wanted to ruin her business.
They say she claimed to be a “world-renowned” dog groomer and denied any claims of abuse.
The affidavit goes on the explain other customers’ reports of similar incidents.
Police say Aufdemorte had been using the alias of “Carrie Russell” on Facebook.
They say she has a criminal history in California and Texas.
Martinez says she’s glad to see no one else’s dogs can be hurt.
“They’re just like my kids so it breaks my heart when they’re mistreated like that but I’m just glad justice is made,” Martinez said.
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