 Bay Area owners of slain dachshund file lawsuit against PetSmart 
 
 Video: Owners of slain dachshund sue PetSmart 
 
 Terrie Peacock wiped away tears streaming down her face Tuesday as she recalled the distress and shock she felt when a San Mateo pet groomer emerged from an appointment with her year-old puppy, Henry, with blood foaming from the pooch’s mouth. After their beloved dachshund died, suffering from two broken ribs and a punctured lung in what was supposed to be a routine nail-trimming at PetSmart, the owners are hitting the national pet retailer with a lawsuit. And as a result, our son died.” 
 
 Henry, a pet of Terrie Peacock and Stefan Zier, died from injuries after a grooming session at PetSmart. Terrie Peacock and Stefan Zier’s one-year-old dachshund Henry died after he was brought into the PetSmart at 3520 S. El Camino Real on May 15 for a nail trim. “The goal is to change the systems, either internally or to have some sort of larger oversight and regulation of the industry. We want these people (groomers) to be trained.” 
 
 Juan Zarate, a 38-year-old San Francisco resident, was arrested in mid-May at the store in the 3500 block of South El Camino Real after it became evident that “deliberate actions committed by Zarate likely contributed to the animal’s death,” said Sgt. Reportedly, the dachshund died after being taken to the store for a routine grooming session, and a PetSmart employee was arrested on suspicion of felony cruelty to animals. A PetSmart representative declined to answer questions about the case, saying in a statement, “As a practice, PetSmart does not comment on pending litigation.” 
 
 The bereaved couple say the lawsuit isn’t about money. Let PetSmart officials know that you’ll instead buy supplies from businesses that don’t sell animals, such as Target, Walgreens, or online retailers. According to the complaint against PetSmart, which was filed by the couple’s attorney Alison Cordova, a large number of consumers nationwide have reported serious injury or pet deaths during grooming sessions at the animal supply store dating as far back as 2010. In addition to unspecified damages, with the lawsuit Zier and Peacock are seeking to prevent this from happening again. “The volume of reports of dogs and cats sustaining serious, and sometimes lethal injuries while being groomed at PetSmart undermines the claim that PetSmart is ‘where pets are family,’” Cordova said in a statement. Always do your research and be vigilant before entrusting your dog to a groomer’s care, or learn some basic techniques in order to groom your dog yourself.
– Pet grooming is an unregulated business and requires no license, and a PETA spokesperson tells the San Francisco Chronicle that the organization gets complaints "all the time" from people who say their pets were injured or even killed during grooming at PetSmart. Now a California couple whose dachshund Henry died at a San Mateo PetSmart in May are filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the retailer and a groomer not for money, they say, but for "systematic" changes. "We want these people to be trained," says Stefan Zier, who with his partner Terrie Peacock has been mourning Henry's death ever since. "I was helpless—he was dying right in front of us," Peacock says. "It's been a living nightmare." According to police, groomer Juan Zarate emerged three minutes after taking the 1-year-old dog into the grooming room for a routine nail trimming to say that Henry was having a medical emergency. The dog had two broken ribs and a punctured lung, was bleeding out of his mouth, and died in minutes. Zarate, who was charged with felony animal cruelty after police ruled that his "deliberate actions ... likely contributed to the animal's death," pleaded not guilty, posted bail, and is still awaiting trial, according to the couple's attorney. They allege that since 2010, reports of animal abuse at the national chain range from severe cuts and overheating to strangulation, which is how an autopsy ruled Henry died, reports CBS Local. (One man sued PetSmart for $1 million over a bit of dog poop.)