A Brooklyn family’s precious pooch was accidentally “roasted” to death after the tiny Shih Tzu was left under a grooming parlor’s scorching blow dryer for too long, the devastated owners said yesterday.
Eight-year-old Zoe Del Toro dropped off her pup, Phoebe, for an annual shave and shampoo at the Brooklyn Zoo & Aquarium in Flatlands on Wednesday – never suspecting she would not see the dog alive again.
Zoe and her mom, Tina, ran errands, and when the car phone rang two hours later, the pair thought the groomer was calling to tell them to come pick up Phoebe.
But after Tina switched the call to speaker phone, she and Zoe learned the horrifying truth – Phoebe had been fried to death.
“They said your dog has passed,” Tina recalled yesterday. “I said, ‘Passed where?’ They said, ‘Your dog is dead.’
“I said, ‘How’s that possible from a haircut?’ ”
When Tina arrived at the groomers, she was handed Phoebe in a cardboard box – which was still hot to the touch.
“I could still feel the heat of my dog through the box,” she said. “I can just imagine what this tiny little dog went through.”
The tearful Zoe yesterday joined her mom at a press conference outside the Ralph Avenue pet store to back legislation requiring groomers be licensed and monitored by the state. The measure is being sponsored by state Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn).
“I miss her very much,” Zoe said.
Tina wanted justice for pet-store owner Peter Eppolito.
“This beautiful, sweet, loving dog was roasted. I won’t be happy unless there’s a vacant sign in this window,” Tina said.
Most groomers dry dogs by hand, said Kruger, but Eppolito’s shop, which grooms at least 150 animals a week, also puts dogs in cages that have dryers clipped to them.
Kruger said Eppolito told him the dog must have been kept in the cage too long, but the owner told The Post that he wasn’t sure how Phoebe died.
“The groomers don’t forget,” said Eppolito, who has been in business 15 years. “The heaters all have timers on them, and they shut themselves off. Usually a dog like that is only put in for a few minutes.”
He couldn’t say for sure how long Phoebe was kept under the dryer.
Manufacturer Edemco sells several dryers that heat up to 135 degrees for 30 minutes at a stretch – far too hot for ASPCA veterinarian Marin Krafchik.
“That’s pretty crazy – that seems very high,” said Krafchik, who wouldn’t blast a dog with air any hotter than 75 degrees. “If these dogs are being kept in cages with dryers, they have to be monitored at all times.”
Shih Tzus are prone to overheating, Krafchik added.
The groomer was traumatized by Phoebe’s death and took the day off, Eppolito said.
Tina said she’s not interested in suing for money and wouldn’t accept a “grain of dog food” from Eppolito, but she wants the store investigated.