According to recent court documents, a Manhattan family’s Alaska vacation was “destroyed” when their cherished 7-pound Poodle was mauled to death at a kennel while they were away.
According to a Manhattan Supreme Court complaint filed Thursday, Narinder Puri sued Buddy’s Dog Den, a grooming and boarding facility on the Upper East Side, for the death of his miniature poodle Bella on July 30 after other dogs escaped during the night and mauled the little pup.
“It’s like losing a family member,” Puri’s lawyer Evan Miles Goldberg told The Post. “They were devastated.”
The 10-year-old canine was handed off at the First Avenue dog facility on July 25 for a planned stay until Aug. 6, when Narinder, 38, his wife Divya, 36, and their two children, aged 5 and 7, returned from their Alaskan holiday, according to the petition.
Buddy’s overnight staff member “was absent and not monitoring the dogs” when the pack “bit Bella, piercing her lung, resulting in excruciating pain and death,” the court papers allege.
Buddy’s “breach of contract while Narinder and his family were thousands of miles away from New York in Alaska, destroyed their family trip,” the lawsuit claims.
“It was miserable,” Goldberg, said of the family’s situation. “You’re on the other side of the country in Alaska. It’s not easy to just hop on a flight and head back to New York on a whim. This was lingering over their heads.”
“There was nothing they could do,” Goldberg said, adding the family felt “absolutely helpless.”
Bella was found in the middle of the night July 30 “with blood covered fur surrounded by approximately 16 other dogs of varying size and breed that escaped from their respective locations at the boarding facility where they were supposed to be sleeping,” the filing claims.
According to the claim, the little pup was confirmed dead at an emergency veterinary facility later that morning, and the family was told the following day.
Puri has suffered “the loss of the return of his love and companionship from Bella,” and the “interruption and frustration of [Puri’s] family vacation,” the suit claims.
Puri also lost the money he spent relocating Bella from Hong Kong to the United States when the family moved in 2021, claiming he used it to pay the expense of cremating the dog.
Despite Buddy’s website touting its safety standards — including having a small-dog only floor — “dogs under defendants’ care were neither monitored at all times, nor separated on different floors, at the time that Bella was mauled and killed,” the suit charges.
“This isn’t the type of thing that happens when dogs are being monitored,” Goldberg said. “Supervision is essential to dogs’ well-being.”
“The case is about protecting our dogs and making sure this doesn’t happen to other owners,” Goldberg added.
According to the lawsuit, the facility has failed to provide the names and information of the dogs involved in Bella’s death.
“There are dangerous dogs in our community and those owners should know,” Goldberg said.
Puri is seeking unspecified damages.
»7-pound pup mauled to death at a kennel in NYC«