PetSmart Employees Charged After Toy Poodle’s Grooming Death

Four employees at a Pennsylvania PetSmart are reportedly facing animal cruelty charges after allegedly strangling a toy poodle named Kobe during a grooming session. 

Julie Miller, Shaphan Stonge, Elizabeth Doty, and Heather Rowe were charged with a number of offenses, People reports, for their alleged roles in the pooch’s death.

Kobe’s owner, CBS Sports reporter AJ Ross, told People she dropped her dog off for a nail trim on Nov. 17. Though she asked to stay with her pup during the grooming session, she said employees told her that, due to COVID-19 restrictions, she wasn’t allowed in the salon. 

“I thought, ‘He’s not getting the full works,’” Ross told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Everything will be OK.”

She went to a nearby Walgreens to make a purchase instead. Upon returning to the PetSmart, however, she said she heard an employee ask for a manager to the grooming area. Minutes later, the manager escorted Ross to the salon, where Kobe laid motionless on the grooming table.

“He looked lifeless,” Ross told People. “He didn’t even look like he was breathing.”

Surveillance footage from the store reportedly shows Doty and Miller putting tethers around the dog’s neck, causing him to become suspended above the table at one point. After Kobe went limp, two managers—Rowe and Stonge—then entered the grooming area and rubbed the dog on the table, according to a criminal complaint. 

PetSmart reportedly fired all four employees; the store also launched an internal investigation into the incident. 

Ross, meanwhile, said PetSmart offered to help her get a new dog, but she declined. “I haven’t taken them up on that offer,” she told the New York Post. “He meant everything to me. I don’t have children, so he was like my child. He was literally like my shadow. Life without him has been weird because he was ever present.”

Ross ran an Instagram account for Kobe. “A loving, loyal, and energetic toy poodle w/ a BIG personality named after a legend!” Kobe’s bio reads.

Ross shared an interview she did with a local news outlet to her own Instagram account on Thursday.

“PetSmart Killed My Dog,” she wrote in the caption of the post. “My horrific experience at PetSmart has been excruciating to recap publicly. But I sincerely hope in sharing my story it will lead to better grooming training practices and increased transparency and oversight; so no one else has to endure a pain like this.”

The Daily Dot has reached out to the local police department.

Today’s top stories

H/T People

*First Published: May 15, 2021, 10:18 am CDT

Alexandra Samuels

Alexandra Samuels is a national political reporter and contributor to the Daily Dot, where she started as an intern covering politics in the summer of 2016. She enjoys all things Marvel, keeping up with the latest TikTok trends, long walks with her pup, and reading murder-mystery novels.


Alexandra Samuels

Source : https://www.dailydot.com/irl/petsmart-poodle-grooming-death/

Report: Longtime Broadcaster Marv Albert Will Retire Following The 2021 Playoffs

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Turner’s coverage of NBA games is going to look a whole heck of a lot different next season. It had already been announced that Chris Webber and the network had opted to part ways ahead of the 2021 postseason, and now, a new report indicates that Webber’s broadcast partner will call it a career when the playoffs come to an end.

According to Andrew Marchand and Phil Mushnick of the New York Post, Marv Albert is a few months away from retiring. The report indicates that his decision to retire after nearly 60 years of calling a number of sports and Webber’s departure from the network are unrelated, and that the news of Albert’s tenure coming to an end will be finalized in the near future.

Sources said TNT, where Albert has been the lead play-by-player for more than two decades, recently began contacting NBA personnel to pay tribute to Albert during the playoffs.

TNT and Albert are expected to formally announce his retirement plans soon.

Albert will turn 80 in June, and has been calling games ever since he filled in on a New York Knicks broadcast for WCBS in 1963. Over his career, he’s called Knicks games for local broadcasts in New York, national games for NBC and Turner, Nets games for YES, and a number of other sports including NFL and NHL games for other networks.

Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/marv-albert-retire-following-2021-nba-playoffs/

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HER Reveals She Was Almost In A Band With Kehlani And Zendaya

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Despite still working on her official debut album, HER is one of today’s most-awarded young acts. The Vallejo, California-born singer already has four Grammys to her name along with a Golden Globe which brings her halfway to the coveted EGOT title. This undeniable success is a result of years worth of hard work and perfecting her craft, which dates back to her early teenage days. In a recent interview on The Carlos Watson Show, HER spoke about a band she was almost a part of earlier in her career, one that included well-known names like Kehlani and Zendaya.

“Dylan Wiggins, who is D’wayne Wiggins’s son from Tony! Toni! Toné!, we used to be in a band together,” she said. “We used to perform together when we were really young.” She added, “Kehlani was actually in our band. We all used to sing together. Zendaya was going to be in it at one point. But yeah, they all grew up together. I came into the picture in Oakland and we used to perform together.”

Poplyfe, a teen pop group from Oakland, California that appeared on season six of America’s Got Talent, is the band HER is referring to. At the time of their involvement in the talent show competition, the band’s members ranged in age from 13 to 18. The group would make it far into the show as they finish in fourth place.

You can hear HER share the news in the video above.

Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Source: https://uproxx.com/music/her-reveals-almost-in-band-kehlani-zendaya/