Family says dog may have to be put down after staying at Burlington kennel



BURLINGTON (WITI) -- A Burlington family is facing a heartbreaking decision -- whether their dog should undergo surgery or be put down. The family says the dog has kidney failure and needs a leg amputated -- problems they say came to light after the dog spent 12 days in a Racine County kennel.

"The dog was emaciated.  He was skin and bones," Joanne Kumprey said.

Kumprey says she was horrified by the state of her dog, Mojo after the dog spent 12 days at the Dale Creek Gundogs Kennel in Burlington.

"He was very lethargic.  He couldn`t move.  It was not the dog we had left at the kennel," Kumprey said.

The family boarded the two-year-old Doberman Pinscher while they took a vacation to Florida. One day before leaving, Mojo visited the vet -- and the clinic says at the time, Mojo appeared normal.

Records show that on that day at the clinic, Mojo weighed 66.2 pounds. Two weeks later, the same clinic weighed Mojo at 51 pounds.

"That`s a 15.2 pound weight loss," Kumprey said.

Kumprey says the kennel never expressed any concern about the dog's health until the last day of the trip.

"She called me and said, 'I know you were thinking about staying over or driving straight through, you might want to come a little sooner because the tech noticed Mojo's left right paw was inflamed,'" Kumprey said.

Kumprey says six hours later, her husband picked up the dog.

"His back left paw was double the size," Kumprey said.

The family posted a picture on Facebook and it quickly spread.

Meanwhile, the kennel's attorney says the kennel has received hundreds of angry messages and threats.

"These are good people running a good, honest, clean kennel. When the dog was picked up it didn't look nearly as bad as the pictures that they posted. According to the vet tech, she said the dog didn't appear to be losing weigh, okay?  And it was eating," Paul Gagliardi said.

The kennel's attorney says it offered to take Mojo to the vet that day -- and says the dog ate 16 pounds of food during its stay.

He says the given the dog's kidney failure, the weight loss could have happened quickly over the course of just a couple days.

Mojo's family thinks it's more likely the dog was neglected.

"I think someone should be held accountable for this.  It's just wrong," Kumprey said.