State investigating grooming facility at center of viral video

By Tyler Cunnington, Paige Reynolds

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    COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (KRDO) — A local video is blowing up online, showing what some are calling a case of animal abuse.

The video, taken at Annie’s Pet Salon, continues to make rounds on social media.

KRDO13 Investigates is digging into the investigation that now includes state agencies over the incident at a local pet salon in Colorado Springs.

KRDO13 Investigates confirmed that the groomer handling that dog in the video is no longer working at the salon.

The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region (HSPPR) is investigating the incident that was caught on cell phone video, and the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which oversees pet groomers and salons within the state, is also looking into the business. However, it’s unclear, what exactly for.

Then employee, Marie St Hill is the one who captured the video. Speaking exclusively with KRDO13, she tell us it was tough to witness, “Rosa wasn’t fighting back. She wasn’t doing anything to make this behavior happen to her. I was brought to tears. I was crying when I was talking to the owner and I was telling her like, you know, this is not okay.”

Friday afternoon, KRDO13 Investigates saw an animal law enforcement vehicle from the Humane Society parked in the plaza where the groomers are located.

HSPPR says that they’re speaking with witnesses, and are still trying to make contact with the groomer in that video.

KRDO13 has made multiple attempts to get a comment from the owner and groomer in question, but they have yet to answer.

The business told us today that the groomer no longer works for them, and they’re handling the situation privately and declined to comment any further.

Meanwhile, the owner of Rosa, the pet at the center of it all, explained to KRDO13 Investigates, how seeing that video, shared to her by the then employee, made her feel.

“Angry, just disappointed, and just had to let them know what was going on and just pretty much angry,” said dog owner Amanda Herrera. “She just knows I go in there a lot and she got my contact and I’m just so grateful that she got it on camera, and we have evidence.”

St Hill and Sunny Garcia, another former employee, tells KRDO13 they quit shortly after the video was taken, “It’s not something we stand for. We don’t want to be associated with it.. like we just don’t want any part of it because that’s not how we handle dogs.”

KRDO13 Investigates went to an address, that is potentially tied to the groomer to ask for their side of what happened, however, no one answered the door.

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