Local Pet Salon Battles Abuse Claims

SALISBURY-   A pet salon in Salisbury has come under recent scrutiny after a video went viral showing  a dog being hit with a wiiffle ball bat.

The video, which was viewed over 150,000 times before being deleted Friday morning, showed Deedra Hager hitting a dog with a plastic bat as a form of punishment. "I've been reflecting it in a more positive way," says Hager. "I mean, people are going to think what they're going to think anyway, and I know I have done nothing wrong, so I have nothing to feel guilty for."

The family who owns the business, says that this is a common practice. "The correction method that we use is a 2-tap on the butt and a redirect. We use a plastic, hollow wiffleball bat that was rated to be used with children ages two to five," says Christina Thornhill, manager of the Salon. "The employee didn't do anything wrong.. she did her job. She stopped what could have been a fatal fight."

The video was shot from the window of a neighboring business, and on Friday, 47 ABC reached out to the woman who shot and posted the video, but her and her place of employment declined to comment.

The pet salon says this isn't the first time they've had a run in with that business. According to them, that same business had called animal control on them 2 years ago. but they say animal control found no wrong doing. 

Since the video went up, the family says they've received death threats and negative comments, making them worry about the future of their business.

"My fear is that whenever someone wants to Google us, Yelp us, Facebook us (reviews), it just pops up animal abusers with no just cause, says Thornhill. "If you have walked through our doors, and met our animals they're happy."

47ABC reached out to multiple pet trainers around the region trainers in the region to see if this method of training was common practice and all declined to comment on the matter as well.