Dog left at Omemee boarding facility nearly died
Six Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act charges laid against Good Doggy operator after pooch was starving and ate leash during three-week stay
The owner of an Omemee area pet boarding and training facility is facing six charges after a dog left by a Peterborough woman at the facility to be trained almost died.
Nadine Francis, owner/operator of Good Doggy of Kawartha Lakes, was charged with six offences under the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, according to Brent Ross, spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General.
The charges stem from an incident in late October when 19month-old Maui, a Neapolitan Mastiff, was boarded for three weeks with the intent of being trained, owner Lynsie Laurie said.
Maui suffered from behavioural issues due to a lack of socialization after undergoing several surgeries as a puppy, she said.
“He had a couple of surgeries on his shoulder when he was a puppy,” Laurie said. “So, the time he was supposed to be out being exposed to people and different animals didn’t really happen.”
She said she started researching training facilities able to train a dog of Maui’s size and temperament.
“When you are talking about a dog that is 140 pounds, you want to make sure it is done properly,” Laurie said.
“I just started googling who was available and I came upon Good Doggy.”
She said she spoke at length with Francis about what Good Doggy could do to help Maui’s temperament and Francis agreed a board-and-train approach at the facility would be best for him.
“She seemed to know what she was talking about, what she was doing,” Laurie said.
“We decided at that time the best course of action was to
board Maui at her house and do a board and train.”
There was concern for how well Maui was adjusting to his new surroundings when he was at the facility, she said.
On the last day Maui was there, Laurie said, she received a call to come pick him up because he was suffering from depression.
“She (Francis) called around 3 p.m. and she had said ‘you know I don’t think this is going well for Maui, he doesn’t seem to be adapting to us very well. I think he is depressed,’” Laurie said.
When she went to pick Maui up, he was unresponsive and smelled horrible, she said.
“The dog didn’t even get up, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t do anything. We didn’t know what had happened,” Laurie said.
She immediately took him to the K aw art ha Veterinary Emergency Clinic to get a veterinarian to look at him, she said.
“When we took him in that day, he weighed 106 pounds. The veterinarians said, ‘I hate to tell you, this dog has been starved,’” Laurie said.
“When he first came in, he was very sick, significantly dehydrated, under conditioned, so weak he needed assistance even walking into the clinic,” said Melanie Dell, veterinarian at Kawartha Veterinary Emergency Clinic.
Because of how sick Maui was, Dell said, he was admitted to the intensive care unit at the veterinarian’s office and put on a feeding tube, and a full list of tests were conducted.
“It was determined he had a gastrointestinal obstruction and he went into surgery, where a portion of a leash was removed from his intestine,” Dell said.
“Approximately three feet of leash was taken out of his intestine.”
Francis told The Examiner she denies the charges and said in a brief phone call that her business is reputable and well known.
“That is false information you have been given, just a lot of propaganda going on because of COVID,” Francis said.