A 22-year-old dog groomer, Boon Regine Vienna, pleaded guilty on 3 May to causing unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal and was fined $8,000 and disqualified from running any animal-related business for 9 months.
She had left a dog leashed on the grooming table and left it unattended to go for a smoke break, and when she returned, found the dog hanging from the leash off the table and dead, according to TODAY.
What happened?
Boon, who works as a dog groomer at Raku Inu, a pet shop along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 4, was grooming a Maltese dog on 9 November at about 2pm after the owner dropped it off for a grooming session.
Bppn secured the dog with a leash around its neck, and halfway through the grooming, she left the shop for a smoke break.
She had observed that the dog was not very active and didn’t secure the dog in a safer position, leaving it unattended on the grooming table.
The dog then tried to lie down on the grooming table but slipped off the edge while still being leashed by its neck, and the dog hung in mid air via its neck until it died.
Boon later returned from her smoke break about 7 minutes later and found the dog unmoving, before calling her colleague for help and bringing the dog to the vet to revive it, but to no success.
Her defence lawyer said that she deeply regrets her poor judgement on the safety aspect of the situation, and shared that Boon was passionate about pet grooming and has been in the line for 4 years.
She has also reached out to the dog owner to apologise for the death of their dog, which the owner accepted; Boon also offered to compensate the owner for the loss but her employer said that they would offer a $20,000 compensation instead.