Anonymous wrote:The owners of the dogs are suing. I can't bring myself to watch the videos on this link. Just reading some of the article has me tearing up.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/life/pets/district-dogs-employees-never-trained-how-handle-flooding-despite-history-of-flash-flooding-location-lawsuit-claims/65-c28df8a9-d349-43ee-98eb-9e78e5b73a2b

Surveillance footage showed the water reached halfway up the double-decker cages, where sources told WUSA9 dogs were inside the kennels. The lawsuit states that many of the dogs at the day care had been moved into crates or kennels, arranged in rows or stacked on top of each other, even though certain dogs were not supposed to be crated at all.


The lawsuit claims the dogs "drowned in excruciating fashion, desperately clawing, scratching, and chewing for life while trapped in cages and flood waters rose through and above the kennels to which [District Dogs] had confined them.

Good! I hope they win. It was unconscionable this place continued to operate with all the known issues that made this tragedy inevitable.

The owners of the dogs are suing. I can't bring myself to watch the videos on this link. Just reading some of the article has me tearing up.
https://www.wusa9.com/article/life/pets/district-dogs-employees-never-trained-how-handle-flooding-despite-history-of-flash-flooding-location-lawsuit-claims/65-c28df8a9-d349-43ee-98eb-9e78e5b73a2b

Surveillance footage showed the water reached halfway up the double-decker cages, where sources told WUSA9 dogs were inside the kennels. The lawsuit states that many of the dogs at the day care had been moved into crates or kennels, arranged in rows or stacked on top of each other, even though certain dogs were not supposed to be crated at all.


The lawsuit claims the dogs "drowned in excruciating fashion, desperately clawing, scratching, and chewing for life while trapped in cages and flood waters rose through and above the kennels to which [District Dogs] had confined them.

D.C. paved over multiple creeks when the city was built. The water has to go somewhere. Crazy that this issue has not been adequately addressed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is on the Mayor - just like the crime wave in DC.

The executive branch of the District of Columbia should have addressed this manifestly unsafe flooding situation long ago. And given their failure to do so, they should not have allowed this and other businesses to operate in an unsafe area.

This is a heartbreaking situation, and a heartbreaking failure by Mayor Bowser.

The owner and the workers knew. Happened several times a year ago. But breaking a lease or closing because you can’t safely operate a business is too expensive, I guess.

I used to work for the company as a trainer, sometimes at this facility. Store management made multiple recommendations DIRECTLY to the owner advising him to close the location for fear of injury or death caused by flooding. The recommendations came 6 months before the deadly flood.

He said “we can’t do that.” It was 100% based on expense. If Jacob Hensley had been willing to part with whatever money would have broken the lease, no dogs would have drowned.

The staff inside gave everything to save who they could, and at least 4 team members have taken medical leave to deal with the psychiatric damage the event caused. Many more flat out quit after getting zero support. The team universally blames Jacob Hensley.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, the dogs who died were caged.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/weather/severe-weather/dogs-that-died-in-flood-were-in-bottom-kennels/65-ac1cca3f-4b16-449a-9cdf-aa34d4ada4ed#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20D.C.%2C%20DC%20%E2%80%94%20D.C.,they%20discovered%20the%20dead%20canines.

I don't get why so many dogs were caged at that time of day.

Apparently the direction staff got was to "put dogs in suites" if there was flooding. My dog died there and we had to learn this from the media, not from District Dogs. There was also no emergency preparedness training or a plan to get the dogs (or humans) out of the building in an emergency. Maybe more dogs would have survived if they hadn't been caged with no plan for their safety.

That plan makes no sense when they needed to get the dogs high up. So sorry that happened to you.

I really don’t think the plan would have been for the amount of water they had. No one anticipates that kind of flooding.

This was a horrible event and clearly they need to investigate both the 911 system and the planning around storm water management and the tunnel project if that was involved but I don’t think we can expect dog kennels to anticipate this honestly.

It literally happened the year before.

I remember the guy who died of cardiac arrest right across the street from a fire station on those island Ave in Brentwood. It was several years ago, and I heard about it on the local news. The family was so distraught, I don’t remember the details but I seem to remember they were actually banging on the door of the station pleading for help. Disgraceful.

I’ve lived here since 2002, and remember all of the tragedies in my area that made it into the news at some level. We have to keep these people’s memories alive and fight for safer streets and better emergency response.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, the dogs who died were caged.

https://www.wusa9.com/article/weather/severe-weather/dogs-that-died-in-flood-were-in-bottom-kennels/65-ac1cca3f-4b16-449a-9cdf-aa34d4ada4ed#:~:text=WASHINGTON%20D.C.%2C%20DC%20%E2%80%94%20D.C.,they%20discovered%20the%20dead%20canines.

I don't get why so many dogs were caged at that time of day.

Apparently the direction staff got was to "put dogs in suites" if there was flooding. My dog died there and we had to learn this from the media, not from District Dogs. There was also no emergency preparedness training or a plan to get the dogs (or humans) out of the building in an emergency. Maybe more dogs would have survived if they hadn't been caged with no plan for their safety.

That plan makes no sense when they needed to get the dogs high up. So sorry that happened to you.

I really don’t think the plan would have been for the amount of water they had. No one anticipates that kind of flooding.

This was a horrible event and clearly they need to investigate both the 911 system and the planning around storm water management and the tunnel project if that was involved but I don’t think we can expect dog kennels to anticipate this honestly.

Would you say that about a daycare?

DP, but I expect daycares to know about child development. I expect kennels to know about animal behavior.

I don't expect either to know about storm drainage.