Owner discovered her dog pregnant after day care trip
CHANTELLE HEEDS
ADOG owner was left ‘heartbroken’ when she discovered her dog was pregnant after a visit to Mucky Pups.
Charmaine Earnshaw claims she took her dog, Daisy, to the Rishton day care business, from March until December last year.
The centre has recently been under scrutiny after Chelsea Devine, a former apprentice at the business, published a series of videos and images online.
The Observer reported last week that footage seemed to show an employee hitting a dog, the use of shock collars and frightened dogs at the centre. Chelsea claims the footage was captured on several different occasions between October and December 18 - when she left the business.
Charmaine, who took Daisy to the Harwood Road business twice a week said she was ‘heartbroken’ after finding out the news, but claimed her ‘nightmare’ carried on when she discovered her one-year-old Maltese and Pomeranian cross was pregnant.
She said: “So after the heartbreak of finding out what was happening at Mucky Pups day care while my dog was going there, the nightmare carried on. Daisy has been quiet and swollen for a few weeks, at first I thought she was just in season. This week I have found out my puppy of one-year-old is pregnant.”
The 53-year-old claims she discovered from a former employee that intercourse with a ‘much bigger’ dog had taken place. The business says checks take place to ensure all dogs have been spayed, and say they have not seen any evidence of the pregnancy.
Charmaine says after taking her dog to the vets and discovering Daisy was pregnant she was advised to book a termination, as the potential size of the puppies could be dangerous to carry.
The procedure costs £589 to carry out and it took place last Thursday, January 2.
Charmaine added: “Not only can I not afford this or have the time, but this is extremely dangerous as the dog in question is more than double her size. Daisy cannot give birth naturally due to the dog being a lot bigger, yet [Mucky Pups] still didn’t tell me and risked my baby dying through birth that I didn’t even know of. [I’m] angry, devastated and quiet frankly heartbroken for my little Daisy.”
Fortunately, Daisy seems to be recovering well following the operation.
Charmaine claims she has made attempts to contact Mucky Pups, but has not received a response.
Lauran Walker, managing director of Mucky Pups, said: “I have evidence regarding these claims that all males have to be castrated [to come to the centre]. I’m still yet to see any evidence of the pregnancy. I have not been directly contacted by the owner of the dog.”
When asked about what evidence she has, Lauren claims that application forms have been signed by owners to say males have been castrated and that checks are carried out during an assessment which takes place before dogs can join the centre.
Since the footage was posted online by Chelsea in December, the RSPCA have confirmed they have launched an investigation.
Mucky Pups issued a statement when the videos emerged in December, which has since been deleted.
It claimed that footage was uploaded by an apprentice but did not provide full context as the man in the video had been bitten.
The statement, from managing director Lauran Walker, said that ‘if anyone needs any more information I would be happy to provide this’, but Mucky Pups did not respond to requests for comment from the Observer. Mucky Pups has since deleted its Facebook page after being inundated with messages and poor reviews.
A business with a similar name in Glossop has been subject to poor reviews and angry messages but the two are not connected.