More pet owners come forward after dog’s death at PetSmart’s PetsHotel boarding facility in Potomac Yard

ALEXANDRIA, Va. ( DC News Now ) — The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria (AWLA) said two other people have come forward after a dog died while being at the PetSmart PetsHotel in Potomac Yard.

In both cases, the two dogs experienced illnesses and then allegedly died within a week of being boarded at the facility.

AWLA said its Animal Services team was contacted on July 1 about the dog’s death. The team has since been investigating how the dog died at the boarding facility, located at 3351 Richmond Highway.

The dog’s body was sent for an animal autopsy on July 2 and AWLA said it was still waiting on the results to come back.

Since the complaint was filed, AWLA’s Animal Services team has been visiting and inspecting the PetsHotel every two days and was interviewing the PetSmart staff there.

The Animal Services team has requested a slew of records from PetSmart and said it has been cooperating in AWLA’s investigation.

All three dogs were boarded at the PetsHotel around the same timeframe. Animal autopsies were not able to be performed on the two other dogs because their bodies had already been cremated.

AWLA recommends that pet owners conduct their own research and consider a list of things before choosing a facility to board their pets. To see AWLA’s recommended list, click here .

PetSmart provided DC News Now with a statement saying:

“Pet care and safety are our top priorities. As pet lovers, we are heartbroken when a pet passes away. We take this extremely seriously and have been in touch with everyone involved to offer our complete support. We are diligently investigating and working closely with the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria. 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. 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.”

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