Loophole lets dog day cares, boarding escape regulation

When Jessica Matson dropped off her skittish lab-hound mix, Ginger, to a Bear kennel earlier this month, she assumed her dog would be safe while the family took a beach vacation.

But when Matson called Hannah's House a week later to check on Ginger, she was told her dog was missing after jumping a fence three hours earlier. To make matters worse, the kennel had removed Ginger's collar while boarding.

"They were well aware that she jumps fences," said an exasperated Matson. "I told them that every time I talked to them."

Ginger is not the only dog to escape from a Delaware kennel this month. On Aug. 18, Chelsey Bock's white terrier-lab mix, Bella, broke free from her boarding crate at Middletown Veterinary Hospital. Like Hannah's, Middletown removed Bella's collar during her stay and waited several hours before notifying Bock that her dog was lost.

It was the first time for both dogs at an overnight kennel. Both have since reunited with their families, after spending more than a week on the lam.

The owners of the kennels, Hannah Doyle of Hannah's House and David Beste of Middletown Veterinary, have apologized for the accidents, explaining that they remove collars with identifying information to prevent dogs from getting tangled with others. Both said they waited to alert the owners because they were frantically searching for the dogs.

"Just when you think you're secure, you find out you're wrong," said Beste, a veterinarian. "This is a kennel's nightmare."

A check of county records found that neither facility has a kennel license. That's because a loophole in state law allows doggie day cares, boarding facilities and breeders to operate without licenses and regular inspections.

Unlike pet stores, which must apply for retail licenses to sell dogs, and pet owners, who must pay their counties from $4 to $15 a year to license their dogs, the licensing of kennels responsible for watching dogs is optional in Delaware.

In practice, that means an indeterminate number of kennels statewide are exempt from paying annual fees from $60 to $550 (depending on capacity) and from being inspected by animal control officers, who check for humane handling and care of dogs, such as providing adequate lighting, ventilation, drainage and space.

Unlicensed kennels are inspected only in response to a cruelty complaint, said Sherri Warburton, director of animal control for First State Animal Center and SPCA, which handles kennel inspections statewide.

"Absolutely, there needs to be changes," she said.

Despite lax standards, nearly 100 kennels are licensed statewide, including more than half in Sussex County.

Among them is Camp Bow Wow near Newark, part of a national chain of doggie day care and boarding facilities. Owner Laurie Williams said she assumed state licensing was mandatory. In the absence of it, she urged consumers to conduct their own inspections.

"Find out what you're getting, meet the people, look at the facility inside and out," she said.

Dogtopia, another large pet care provider in north Wilmington, is not licensed. Owner Helen Jones said she didn't think doggie day cares qualified as kennels under state law. Dogtopia corporate conducts rigorous annual inspections, she said.

The state-formed Animal Welfare Task Force highlighted uneven enforcement of kennels in a report from 2013, the same year the Office of Animal Welfare was formed under the Division of Public Health.

"Many members demonstrated general concern for the welfare of animals in these environments, as they were not regularly inspected," the report found.

But while the animal welfare office moved quickly to adopt new shelter standards and inspection protocols for facilities housing stray and lost animals, private kennels remain on the back burner.

Staffers are now busy trying to transition animal cruelty enforcement and rabies control to the state from the nonprofit First State, according to office spokeswoman Emily Knearl.

"Legislative or regulatory changes to kennel licensing rules is something we intend to evaluate in the future," she said in a statement.

Delaware's top-ranking Senate Democrat, Patricia Blevins, D-Elsmere, who chaired the animal task force, said she was surprised to learn that doggie day care and boarding facilities are outside of state regulation.

"I think that's a loophole," she said recently. "We'll be playing catch-up on this, and I think it's something we need to do."

Pennsylvania and New Jersey both require kennels to be licensed, and Pennsylvania publishes inspection reports online. But the majority of states don't regulate the $6.4 billion pet care services industry, according to Carmen Rustenbeck, director of the International Boarding and Pet Services Association.

"Most of the public doesn't know we're not regulated," she acknowledged. "It's unheard of that an industry could be this old and not be regulated."

Still, the 230-member association, representing a fraction of the estimated 30,000 pet boarding facilities nationwide, doesn't advocate for government intervention. Instead, leaders recommend enhanced education for kennel owners and employees through new certification programs to be unveiled next year.

State laws have been slow to evolve as many pet owners no longer view their furry friends as property, but equal-opportunity family members, according to Rustenbeck.

"If you have a pet hurt, killed or lost in a boarding facility, in the end, the law says it's property," she said.

Trail of complaints

Since opening in 2006, Hannah's House has racked up complaints for lax supervision of dogs, resulting in animals allegedly returning home with injuries or not at all, according to animal control records, online reviews and interviews with former customers and employees.

Adam Ferguson said he stopped taking his goldendoodle, Daisy, to Hannah's day care, after she returned one day limping with a gash on her hind leg.

"They told me it was an old wound," he said. Ferguson's emergency vet, who charged $200 and ordered a 60-day quarantine for Daisy, disagreed.

First State has logged four formal complaints against the kennel dating to 2008, including two cases of animals biting humans and two cases of sick dogs at the facility. In one 2011 complaint, a Hannah's client alleged that her pitbull lost 20 pounds during a monthlong stay.

In each case, animal control officers inspected Hannah's and found clean conditions and healthy animals, according to First State reports. Online review sites show mixed reviews for the 2-acre facility.

Hannah Doyle, who co-owns Hannah's House with her mother, denied the severity of the complaints, blaming disgruntled former employees and well-meaning pet owners who underestimate their dogs' stress response to boarding. She has filed cease-and-desist orders against four former employees, alleging that they have conspired to steal business trade secrets.

Over nearly a decade in business, Doyle said only one other dog at the kennel has escaped, and that animal was quickly recovered. Two others died of complications associated with old age, Doyle said.

Ginger broke free while an employee was walking her in a fenced yard, Doyle said.

"These are not my dogs to license," she added. "They are the [owners'] property, and this is my business. If the dog gets loose, it's not my responsibility."

"If a kid goes to school and gets injured, is the school liable?" she asked.

Doyle, who charges $23 a day for boarding, says she has helped Matson by printing fliers, reimbursing her for gas and supplies, and paying for a professional dog tracker and vet bills.

"This was an unfortunate accident," she said, adding that the kennel will no longer accept jumpers.

But Matson and her husband believe the kennel was negligent, even though a signed waiver releases Hannah's House from liability. Their tan dog, who they believe was hiding out under a porch in Sylvan Park, jumped into their van Sunday after a neighbor spotted her.

Both Hannah's House and Middletown Veterinary didn't follow guidelines established by the international pet boarding association, which instructs facilities to have two employees in the yard for every 15 dogs, interior fences of at least 6feet tall and perimeter fences surpassing 8 feet. Owners should be notified immediately when a dog goes missing from a kennel, said Rustenbeck, adding that the situation is extremely rare.

Beste, who paid for traps, tracking cameras and bacon, along with personally searching for Bella, said he has since reinforced the wiring on his outdoor cages.

Bella was placed in one while her indoor kennel was being cleaned. She must have climbed the 6-foot-tall cage and pushed open the latch, Beste reasoned. The kennel has no complaint record, according to First State.

"We haven't had anything like this happen before," Beste said. "The dog outsmarted us."

Bock spent consecutive days tracking Bella in a cornfield near the kennel while she and her fiancé took turns sleeping in their Jeep. The initial bitterness she felt toward Middletown Veterinary has been replaced with gratitude, she said, after Beste's family helped recover Bella late Wednesday night.

Like Ginger, a lighter Bella jumped into her mom's lap, riddled with ticks and scratches, but generally in good health.

While overjoyed, Bock urged the state to strengthen its oversight of kennels to safeguard against abuses.

As for the escape artist, she's getting a new orthopedic dog bed.

"She will probably never be boarded again," Bock said.

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.

Hunting for a doggie day care/boarding facility. Here are some key questions to ask from the International Boarding and Pet Services Association:

• Are you a member of an association for boarding, doggie daycare, grooming or training?

• What is the staff-to-pet ratio?

• Do you have someone on site at all times?

• Do you have an evacuation plan?

• For boarding dogs, how frequently are they let out of crates for exercise and elimination?

• How much contact will there be with other dogs?

• How will medications be administered?

• How long has the facility been in business?

• What type of animal care training does staff receive?

Unsuitable dogs for daycare, according to the ASPCA:

• Unvaccinated puppies.

• Females in heat and unneutered males.

• Undersocialized dogs that haven't had sufficient pleasant experiences with a wide variety of other dogs.

• Bullies that tend to pick on other dogs.

• "Dog dorks" that lack good social skills and whose intensity and energy often seem to annoy or scare other dogs.

• Herding breeds that run around trying to control the movements of other dogs and interfere with their playing.