--- description: PetSmart announced that a Houston area groomer was fired after a video showing the worker yanking a dog went viral title: PetSmart Groomer Fired After Video of Yanked Dog Goes Viral image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbef52471a1132478/6988fa8622fb855d5be249ac/petsmart-employee-fired-viral-grooming-video.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [animals](/tag/animals/) ## animals Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # PetSmart Groomer Fired After Video of Yanked Dog Goes Viral by [Lisa Marie Segarra](/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 3, 2018 8:13 PM CUT  A shopper walks with a dog toward the entrance of a PetSmart Inc. store in LaSalle, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. A shopper walks with a dog toward the entrance of a PetSmart Inc. store in LaSalle, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2015.Photo by Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Lisa Marie Segarra](/author/lisa-marie-segarra/) ## Lisa Marie Segarra Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 3, 2018 8:13 PM CUT [PetSmart](http://time.com/money/4560925/petsmart-same-day-delivery/ "undefined") announced that a Houston-area groomer was fired after a video showing the worker yanking a dog went viral. The video showed the groomer gripping the dog’s muzzle and jerking its face as they tried to groom the area around the Shih Tzu’s neck,[ the Washington _Post_ reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/02/03/petsmart-groomer-fired-after-viral-video-showed-dog-being-yanked-around/?utm%5Fterm=.aa089ba82f21 "undefined"). The woman later yanks the dog to switch the dog’s angle. “She was just being very aggressive with that little dog, just grabbing it by the ears. It was just unnecessary. The small dog was not really being aggressive or even being resistant, really,” Terah Leder, who took the video, told the Washington _Post_ of the [groomer](http://time.com/3153342/primping-pooches-at-the-2014-world-dog-show/ "undefined"). Leder and Zahiana Jenkins, who also saw the incident, reported it to the PetSmart managers and waited for the dog’s owner to arrive and showed her the video, according to the report. The owner, Brooke Vowers then posted the video to [Facebook](http://time.com/5125267/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-news-feed-regulations/ "undefined"), where it gained close to half a million views, the _Post_ reported. The employee was fired shortly after the video surfaced. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5132235/petsmart-groomer-fired/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5132235/petsmart-groomer-fired/"},"headline":"PetSmart Groomer Fired After Video of Yanked Dog Goes Viral","datePublished":"2018-02-03T20:13:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:08:10.154Z","description":"The video gained close to half a million views","url":"https://time.com/5132235/petsmart-groomer-fired/","keywords":["animals","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbef52471a1132478/6988fa8622fb855d5be249ac/petsmart-employee-fired-viral-grooming-video.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lisa Marie Segarra","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/lisa-marie-segarra/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbef52471a1132478/6988fa8622fb855d5be249ac/petsmart-employee-fired-viral-grooming-video.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A PetSmart Inc. Store As Earnings figures Are Released","caption":"A PetSmart Inc. Store As Earnings figures Are Released","creditText":"Photo by Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5132235/petsmart-groomer-fired/","name":"PetSmart Groomer Fired After Video of Yanked Dog Goes Viral"}}]}] ```