WILBRAHAM - The owner of Lotte's Professional Dog Grooming at 2489 Boston Road will be arraigned Monday in Palmer District Court for animal cruelty in connection with the death of a toy poodle.



Sharon M. Kozik, 51, was charged after an investigation by Wilbraham police and Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.



According to the investigation report by MSPCA Officer Christine Allenberg, the dog named "Rusty" died after Kozik allegedly struck it in the head with a pair of electric clippers. Kozik told police officers that the dog suffered a seizure, and that the staff tried unsuccessfully to revive him.



The dog had been muzzled for grooming because of his anxiety and aggressiveness, Kozik told the officers.



Allenberg wrote that the dog had no history of seizures; a veterinarian at Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston took X-rays of the dog's skull and found that it had a skull fracture consistent with impact trauma.



Allenberg, who interviewed Kozik and several Lotte's employees with Wilbraham Officer Timothy J. Camerlin at the business, wrote that Kozik told them that the dog bit one of her employees, so she took over grooming, then he started having a seizure.

"When I advised her that the x-rays showed a skull fracture she became visibly upset and sank to the ground. She was crying . . . She said that she hit 'Rusty' in the head with her hand. She denied having anything in her hand. I asked her what made her hit the dog and she did not know," Allenberg wrote.



Kozik told Allenberg that she did not call a veterinarian because she knew the dog was dead.



"She also stated that during her years as a groomer she had a few other dogs die while being groomed and that it sometimes just happens," Allenberg's report read.



Allenberg said Kozik agreed to go to the Wilbraham Police Department to provide a written statement, but then called later to say she would not be providing a statement, and would be hiring an attorney instead.



Camerlin's narrative stated that Kozik told him that no other groomer would take the dog because of its aggressiveness. Allenberg wrote that she spoke with the dog's owner, who said that she gave it a tranquilizer before grooming because he would get nervous.



Kozik could not be reached for comment.



The maximum penalty for an animal cruelty conviction is five years in state prison, or 2 ½ years to the House of Correction.