::August 26 Update::

Mariko Dormer has been charged as the person beating the dogs in the video. Lets hope she gets the jail time possible and that she clearly deserves. It is time to set an example. http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=991412&binId=1.1201914&playlistPageNum=1

Animal abuse is horrific in any circumstances. I am getting more than a little sick and tired of hearing reports of abuse coming from dog grooming and daycare facilities that clearly are not monitoring their staff and operations well enough.

At Chasin Tails an employee beat a boxer puppy until it was vomiting blood. This was caught on video last year. At the same doggie daycare, a dog died shortly after having being picked up a few months ago though to be fair the investigation was not complete at the time of this story.

Today I see a video being released of a groomer at Fur Kids (1009 10 St. SW) Calgary where a groomer is beating dogs with a hairbrush and a vacuum cleaner. In this case it took a distraught employee to secretly videotape the beatings and expose them. How many beatings were happening off camera? Is it really possible that the owners had utterly no clue about this? The responsibility is theirs in any case.

Were it not for video evidence neither of the above stories would have come to light.

We entrust our pets to these establishments. To many of us our pets are family members and abuse of them is not to be tolerated.

Canada needs stronger animal abuse laws without doubt. Aside from the law, we as consumers can help reduce abuse by refusing to patronize these establishments when abuse cases pop up.

I understand that not all employees or owners of these establishments abuse animals. It is the responsibility of people in these establishments to expose and end abuse as soon as it is encountered though. If we as consumers are more inclined to vote with our wallets we can encourage these people to run better facilities.

Shop carefully when choosing a place to entrust your pets people. If the above businesses go broke, perhaps the remaining ones will feel more inspired to ensure that their standards of animal care remain high. We need to shame animal abusers where legislation is failing to stop them.