WAG’s dog dies after spending too long in dryer at pet parlour
A GOLDEN retriever belonging to the family of a former Premier League footballer died of heatstroke after being left inside a hair- drying cabinet at a dog grooming parlour.
Charlie, a healthy six-year-old owned by ex-Liverpool defender Daniel Agger and his wife Sofie, had been inside the dryer for 15 minutes when he started pawing at the door.
But professional dog groomer Lisa Healy, 45, failed to realise he was in distress. Instead she left the dog unattended for another ten minutes, by which time Charlie had collapsed.
Healy panicked and called a vet, who told her to try to cool the dog with wet towels and by sponging his mouth. But the dog died in the early hours of the following day. Following Charlie’s death, Agger’s wife said the whole family had been left ‘heartbroken’. Mrs Agger, who has two children with the Danish national captain, said: ‘He went to the groomer and never came home again. They put him in some dryer box and we still don’t know if they forgot him or the machine had a fault. We will miss you Charlie.’
Earlier this week Healy appeared before magistrates and admitted causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. The mother-of-one, who has 25 years’ experience in dog grooming, said she was devastated by the ‘freak’ tragedy.
‘I’ve spoken to Mr Agger, and have apologised to him and his family,’ she said, adding: ‘He wanted answers about what had happened. I helped him as best I could, but really I was still in shock. I feel awful because Charlie was a family dog, his wife was devastated and they have children – how do you explain something like that to them?’
She went on to say: ‘I was really traumatised by it, my health has been terrible since it happened and I’ve suffered flashbacks. Most dogs scratch at the door in the dryer, so I didn’t think anything of it. I’ve left big dogs in there for that amount of time before, it wasn’t an unusual thing, but he had a freak reaction.
‘Obviously I should have taken the dog out earlier, I made a pro- fessional misjudgment and I’ve held my hands up to it.’
Sefton magistrates’ court heard that Agger, who now plays for Danish side Brondby, was abroad at the time of the incident in December last year.
He had left Charlie in the care of a dog trainer, who took him for an appointment at Dapper Dogs, the grooming business run by Healy in Ainsdale, near Southport. Peter Mitchell, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, told the court that Healy had been negligent because guidelines state that dogs should never be left unattended inside drying cabinets.
Healy told the court: ‘I want to warn other dog groomers to really read the instructions on this machinery, be vigilant and not become lackadaisical about it. I would never have left a dog unattended if I thought they could kill.’
Mark Ellis, who defended her, said she was struggling to come to terms with what he described as an ‘absolute tragedy’.
He added: ‘Miss Healy has been running her dog grooming business for 25 years without incident and words cannot express how sorry she is for what happened.
‘She would like to publicly apologise to the owners for their terrible loss. There are no winners in this case, it’s a tragedy. If she could turn the clock back she would.’
Healy escaped a ban on keeping pets or working with them after magistrates heard the incident was a one-off in an otherwise unblemished career. Instead she was fined £250 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £25. She was also told to pay £ 2695 of RSPCA costs and vet bills.