Dog owner sues Your Dog's Best Friends, alleging facility concealed cause of death

This story contains descriptions of animal abuse that some readers may find disturbing.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The owner of a golden retriever killed at a Del Ray boarding and grooming facility two years ago has sued the business, its owner, and the former groomer convicted in her death, alleging he was told for nearly a year that his dog died of a heart condition.

Andrew Cheslock filed the suit July 9 in Alexandria Circuit Court against Your Dog's Best Friends, Inc., owner Paul Haire and Kevin M. Sanders, according to the complaint. The defendants were served July 10.

The suit's central allegation is not about the death itself, which was the subject of a criminal prosecution that ended in June. It is about the 11 months that followed.

Cheslock alleges the business told him his 14-month-old golden retriever, Abigail, died of a medical condition on July 12, 2024, never disclosed that its own surveillance cameras had recorded what happened, and continued to solicit and bill him for the care of his other dogs until police and animal welfare investigators contacted him in June 2025.

"For that entire time, YDBF let me keep believing a false story about how my dog died," Cheslock told The Alexandria Brief.

Haire and Your Dog's Best Friends did not respond to requests for comment sent to the business Wednesday, July 29, and Thursday, July 30. Haire has not been criminally charged in connection with Abigail's death or the other incidents.

Sanders, who began serving a two-year prison term June 25, could not be reached. As a condition of his probation, he is barred from owning animals or holding any job involving them.

The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, which declined to discuss the evidence while the criminal case was pending under a state bar rule restricting extrajudicial statements, is not a party to the civil suit.

The allegations in the complaint have not been tested in court.

Five counts

The complaint brings five counts and seeks damages exceeding $1.6 million.

Count I alleges negligence by Sanders and, through him, the business, and seeks $21,241.48 — pleaded as Abigail's replacement value. Count II alleges willful and wanton conduct by Sanders and the business and seeks $500,000 in punitive damages.

Count III alleges Your Dog's Best Friends violated the Virginia Consumer Protection Act by misrepresenting that Abigail would be safe during grooming, that its employees were trained, and that it had policies and protocols in place. It seeks $63,724.44 — three times the claimed actual damages — plus attorney's fees.

Counts IV and V are directed at Haire personally, alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraudulent concealment. Together they seek $35,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

Cheslock is represented by Rakin R. Hamad of Curcio Law in Alexandria. The suit demands a jury trial.

Under Virginia law, dogs are treated as personal property, which generally limits recovery in negligence to the animal's value. Asked how the $21,241.48 figure was calculated, Cheslock said it reflects the cost of acquiring another golden retriever and raising her to 14 months — the age Abigail was when she died — including veterinary screening.

"This is replacement cost, as crass as that may sound," he said. "That is the necessary framing for the pleading."

What the criminal case established

A grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Sanders on July 14, 2025. He pleaded guilty in February to a Class 6 felony animal cruelty charge in Abigail's death and was found guilty by a judge on four Class 1 misdemeanor counts involving other dogs at the facility, based on seized video. He was sentenced June 11 to five years with three suspended, and barred for life from owning animals or working in any job involving them.

The four misdemeanor incidents occurred Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Dec. 18 and Dec. 31, 2024, according to the Commonwealth's statement of facts — between three and six months after Abigail's death. The Commonwealth's Attorney's Office has said the charged offenses took place between July 2024 and January 2025.

According to the Commonwealth's statement of facts, Sanders grew frustrated while grooming Abigail, shoved her forcefully and held her in a way that caused a grooming tool around her neck to choke her, at one point placing her in a headlock. A veterinarian who reviewed the surveillance video for the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, or AWLA, concluded the dog was substantially mistreated and that the mistreatment caused her death.

Sanders remained employed at the facility until his arrest on July 21, 2025 — more than a year after Abigail died.

The investigation began Dec. 13, 2024, when an anonymous former employee contacted AWLA's Animal Services team and provided initial video evidence. AWLA is a private nonprofit contracted by the City of Alexandria to provide animal control and stray sheltering services within city limits; the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office described the case as jointly investigated by the Alexandria Police Department and Alexandria Animal Control.

That complaint alleged management was allowing the abuse to continue, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Alexandria Circuit Court. Investigators executed a search warrant at the business Jan. 24, 2025, seizing more than 640 video files.

What the facility said, and when

What Cheslock alleges was described publicly by AWLA a year before he sued.

In a July 22, 2025 news release announcing Sanders' arrest, AWLA stated that no complaint had been filed against Your Dog's Best Friends by Abigail's owner because the events leading to her death were undisclosed by the facility.

At a bond hearing, a prosecutor told the court that the owners were told their dog had a heart attack and were not told she had been strangled, according to a transcript.

Haire has given two public accounts.

In a statement posted to the business's Facebook page on July 22, 2025 — the day after Sanders' arrest — Haire wrote that a veterinarian who examined Abigail within minutes was certain she had died of dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart condition he described as a congenital defect increasingly recognized in golden retrievers. He wrote that the veterinarian was asked specifically about signs of trauma or asphyxiation and indicated there were none.

That statement also said Sanders had struggled to control the dog immediately beforehand and had failed to follow a facility protocol requiring a groomer to take a dog off the table in that situation. Haire wrote that Sanders was removed from grooming for retraining over several months before resuming limited duties as a bather.

The first two of the four incidents Sanders was later convicted of occurred about three months after Abigail's death.

The statement asserted that the business had never seen or received a report of any injury or customer complaint about the treatment of dogs in its grooming operation, before the incident or after.

That post was subsequently edited twice, according to its public edit history. Both revisions expanded the introduction to add assertions about the four additional incidents: first that the day of Sanders' arrest was the first the business had been made aware of them, and then that it had been given no video evidence of them. The body of the statement was not changed in either revision.

The search warrant had been executed at the business six months earlier.

In a second statement posted Feb. 7, three days after the convictions, Haire apologized and wrote that he had misjudged Sanders' character. He said he had viewed the surveillance video himself and, drawing on training as a former emergency room orderly, believed what he saw was consistent with the heart attack the veterinarian had diagnosed. He wrote that he had told the veterinarian he would cover the cost of determining the cause of death if there was any uncertainty.

He also wrote that most of his staff are referred to the business by probation officers, sheriffs, judges, prosecutors and transitional support organizations, and that he had since made personnel, training and surveillance changes at the facility.

Neither statement has been amended or retracted since Sanders' conviction. The complaint alleges the February statement continued a misrepresentation of the circumstances of Abigail's death.

"As far as I'm concerned, he lied"

Haire also spoke on camera the day after Sanders' arrest, in a July 22, 2025 report by WJLA-TV.

He told the station he was as surprised as anyone by the charges, that the facility had never had a client complaint about Sanders' treatment of dogs, and that no dog had been injured by him. He said a local veterinarian had told him Abigail died of heart failure.

Haire said going from a veterinarian telling them the dog died of a congenital heart condition to being accused of torturing a dog was, in his words, a little nuts. He said it was obvious the dog was not being strangled — and said that what the animal control officer put in the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant amounted to a lie.

That officer, Anthony Rankin, is AWLA's chief of animal services and wrote the affidavit filed Jan. 23, 2025. He responded in the same segment, saying there was nothing untrue in his affidavit. Rankin said that he, police and two independent veterinarians had reviewed video of the July 2024 incident, and that what he saw was textbook abuse of an animal that led to the animal's death.

Sanders pleaded guilty to the felony charge roughly six months later.

A staff video

The complaint also points to a promotional video posted to the business's Facebook page on July 22, 2025 — the day after Sanders' arrest — in which Sanders appears alongside other employees describing their work.

In the video, reviewed by The Alexandria Brief, Sanders identifies himself by name and says he has been with the business for almost a year, working as a groomer, bather, play floor staff and overnight staff. He praises the training available to employees and says that at the facility, you get to play with the fur babies all day.

The video appears to have been recorded well before it was posted; Sanders was employed at the facility in July 2024, a year before his arrest. The post has since been taken down.

Abigail

Cheslock said a necropsy was raised the day Abigail died — by the treating veterinarian at Del Ray Animal Hospital, not by Haire.

He said he declined it. He described being in the exam room with Abigail's body and said that under the circumstances, as he understood them at the time, he saw no reason to have his dog cut open.

His position is that the veterinarian was working from an incomplete account because the facility had not told her what its cameras recorded, or that footage existed. Cheslock said the veterinarian also told them a necropsy might not have been definitive.

The treating veterinarian, who has not been identified, at Del Ray Animal Hospital has not publicly discussed Abigail's death. The practice has not responded to a request for comment.

"But for the whistleblower, there never would have been any investigation," he said.

"Paul Haire never offered me anything," Cheslock said, adding that Haire has never spoken to him directly about Abigail's death.

Abigail had been in Alexandria less than four months.

Cheslock said he and his wife adopted her from his elderly parents in Florida, who had found the young golden retriever more than they could handle. The couple drove to Florida in April 2024 and brought her back to Alexandria. She died less than 100 days later.

Cheslock said he learned Abigail had been hurt when his wife came into the room where he was on a treadmill, screaming about a call she had just taken from Del Ray Animal Hospital. Two years later, he said, any time his wife raises her voice in the house, his first thought is that something has happened to one of their dogs. It happened again Wednesday night.

Abigail was cremated July 16, 2024. The complaint alleges the business paid for the cremation, and that Haire had personally viewed the surveillance footage before it occurred.

No inspections without a complaint

Animal grooming and boarding facilities in Virginia are not subject to annual inspections by a state agency and are inspected only if a complaint is filed, according to AWLA.

Cheslock said he assumed some regulatory framework existed for an animal's death at a commercial facility.

"Turns out I was wrong," he said. "The only reason any of this came up is because of a whistleblower."

The December 2024 complaint was the second AWLA had investigated involving the business, according to that same news release. An earlier complaint, filed Dec. 3, 2021, concerned a dog that became ill after being boarded at the facility, AWLA said. In that case, AWLA said, its Animal Services team found insufficient evidence that the dog's illness was a direct result of the facility's care. The earlier complaint did not involve Sanders, according to AWLA.

Abigail died at the Your Dog's Best Friends boarding and grooming facility at 2000 Richmond Highway. The business continues to operate there and advertises grooming among its services, according to its website.

The same corporation also operates The Dog Store, a pet supply retailer at 2301 Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray, and a second Dog Store location that opened in late 2025 in the Belle View Shopping Center in Fairfax County. The Mount Vernon Avenue store announced in June that it would close after its building was sold, then said in late July that its lease had been extended to Jan. 6, 2027, according to ALXnow. Haire told the outlet that if he cannot find another Del Ray storefront, he will move the retail operation to the Richmond Highway boarding facility.

It was the Mount Vernon Avenue pet supply store, not the boarding and grooming facility, that received the Del Ray Business Association's Heart of Del Ray award in 2024.

The suit names Your Dog's Best Friends, Inc. as the corporate defendant. State Corporation Commission records show The Dog Store is registered as a fictitious name of that same corporation rather than as a separate company, meaning the retail stores and the boarding facility operate under a single legal entity.

Your Dog's Best Friends, Inc. is a Virginia stock corporation formed Feb. 10, 2004, and listed as active and in good standing, according to those records. Haire is the corporation's president and its only listed director, and serves as its registered agent. Its principal office is the Richmond Highway facility.

Cheslock said he decided to speak publicly only after the criminal case ended.

"I didn't want to do anything that could get in the way of bringing Kevin Sanders to justice," he said. "But now that that's happened, I feel like it's the right time for me to tell this story."

He said he wants people in Alexandria to know what happened to his family — including, he said, families who might still be bringing their dogs to the facility.

How to report suspected animal cruelty in Alexandria

Suspected animal cruelty, neglect or mistreatment in the City of Alexandria can be reported to AWLA, a nonprofit organization contracted by the city to provide animal control and stray sheltering services from the city-owned Vola Lawson Animal Shelter. Its Animal Control and emergency line, 703-746-4444, is staffed 24 hours a day. AWLA's general line is 703-746-4774.

If an animal is in immediate danger, call 911.

Because Virginia does not require annual state inspections of boarding or grooming facilities, a complaint is generally what triggers an inspection. There is also no public database of past complaints against a facility, AWLA says, which leaves the research to the animal's owner.

AWLA publishes a list of questions worth asking before choosing a facility at alexandriaanimals.org/choosingaboardingfacility. Among them: whether the business or the individual groomer has ever been investigated by animal control or another law enforcement agency for abuse or neglect; what restraints are used and what safeguards are in place to prevent injury or death; what the communication plan is if an animal becomes sick or injured; and whether the groomer holds certifications in low-stress handling.

Editor's note: Court documents differ on Abigail's age. The Commonwealth's statement of facts, cited in previous Alexandria Brief coverage, described her as a 3-year-old golden retriever. The complaint filed by her owner states she was 14 months old when she died. Her owner told The Alexandria Brief that 14 months is correct.