Buddy the Yorkshire Terrier
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CASTLE ROCK -
They dropped their tiny dog off for grooming at the Castle Rock PetSmart. Minutes later, another dog mauled it to death. Now the family is asking us to help them find answers about how the situation was handled.
Looking at the Marczuk's family album, you can see two year old Buddy was the classically cute Yorkie.
"He was just our little friend so," said Summer Marczuk fighting back tears, "I don't know it's very emotional, we're still going through it every day."
As those family pictures show, Buddy was also 9-year-old Augustin Marczuk's constant companion and best friend.
But a half hour after Buddy was dropped off to be groomed at PetSmart on Sunday, April 12, the family got a call that Buddy had been attacked by another dog in the store.
He was taken to a nearby animal hospital but it was too late.
"When I saw his face, I just started crying because I mean couldn't take it," said Pablo Marczuk, Augustin's dad, "I didn't understand... it was a big loss for us."
"Horrible....it was so sad about it all," said Augistin also fighting back tears.
What troubled the family most though, was that Buddy had been killed by the PetSmart grooming manager's dog, a dog other workers call a pit bull.
But a dog the owner calls in the police report, an American Bulldog Mastiff.
It's a dog workers say was often brought to the store.
"There's a lot of mystery going on that is what makes us more angry about it," says Summer.
The Marczuk family says that the grooming manager, identified in court papers as Crystal Cruz, actually took Buddy to the hospital after the attack and denied it was her dog that killed him.
"The girl that was there and saw me crying and saw my son crying lied to us," said Pablo, "Saying it was another dog that killed buddy. When it fact it was her dog."
PetSmart and the grooming manager have refused to comment on the case, but Cruz faces a charge of keeping a dangerous animal.
"People tell me the dog is always there it had been before, it happened, you know there's a lot of stories go around," said Summer, "So that's what makes us upset you know it could have happened to anybody not just us. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. "
The family has hired an attorney to try to force PetSmart to change its policies.
That attorney tells me he's looking at allegations the groomer's dog also had a history of aggressive behavior.
A PetSmart corporate spokesman initially told me the dog groomer was not violating company policy when she brought her dog to work.
But he later told me he could not discuss the case.
Looking at the Marczuk's family album, you can see two year old Buddy was the classically cute Yorkie.
"He was just our little friend so," said Summer Marczuk fighting back tears, "I don't know it's very emotional, we're still going through it every day."
As those family pictures show, Buddy was also 9-year-old Augustin Marczuk's constant companion and best friend.
But a half hour after Buddy was dropped off to be groomed at PetSmart on Sunday, April 12, the family got a call that Buddy had been attacked by another dog in the store.
He was taken to a nearby animal hospital but it was too late.
"When I saw his face, I just started crying because I mean couldn't take it," said Pablo Marczuk, Augustin's dad, "I didn't understand... it was a big loss for us."
"Horrible....it was so sad about it all," said Augistin also fighting back tears.
What troubled the family most though, was that Buddy had been killed by the PetSmart grooming manager's dog, a dog other workers call a pit bull.
But a dog the owner calls in the police report, an American Bulldog Mastiff.
It's a dog workers say was often brought to the store.
"There's a lot of mystery going on that is what makes us more angry about it," says Summer.
The Marczuk family says that the grooming manager, identified in court papers as Crystal Cruz, actually took Buddy to the hospital after the attack and denied it was her dog that killed him.
"The girl that was there and saw me crying and saw my son crying lied to us," said Pablo, "Saying it was another dog that killed buddy. When it fact it was her dog."
PetSmart and the grooming manager have refused to comment on the case, but Cruz faces a charge of keeping a dangerous animal.
"People tell me the dog is always there it had been before, it happened, you know there's a lot of stories go around," said Summer, "So that's what makes us upset you know it could have happened to anybody not just us. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. "
The family has hired an attorney to try to force PetSmart to change its policies.
That attorney tells me he's looking at allegations the groomer's dog also had a history of aggressive behavior.
A PetSmart corporate spokesman initially told me the dog groomer was not violating company policy when she brought her dog to work.
But he later told me he could not discuss the case.
