‘This shouldn’t have happened’: Pet owners call for change at Pet Paradise in Pooler

POOLER, Ga. (WTOC) - In early June, multiple people took to social media warning others about their experience at Pet Paradise in Pooler.

Sarah Bachi booked her two Great Danes into the VIP suite, accompanied by 24/7 surveillance. Its the large suite, and was supposed to have 2 beds.

The dogs both weigh over 200 pounds.

“There was no second bed provided, and I watched my 200-pound male lie on the wet concrete floor for hours at the time,” Bachi expressed. “I watched him suffering, trying to stand up, trying to get his grip, trying to use his weight to shift from side to side.”

Sarah immediately called Pet Paradise to report her concerns.

When she saw on the cameras that nothing had changed, she drove back from her vacation in Florida, less than 24 hours from when she left.

After picking her dogs up, she realized one of her pups was limping, and one of his paws was dripping blood.

“Everybody was like ‘Oh no, oh no, I’m so sorry this isn’t acceptable’ but everyone who said it wasn’t acceptable thought it was acceptable because they were in that building, they saw my dogs at some point, and left them that way. When I got home, everybody went to sleep because my dogs were exhausted, they’d been up,” said Bachi.

“They didn’t really have much of an excuse or a reason for why this was allowed to ever happen this way,” said Bachi. “Giant breeds have specific care standards that they need to be kept with. If you don’t know those standards and you can’t provide those standards, then you shouldn’t be accepting giant breeds to care for.”

Regarding Jude and Friday, the two dogs in reference, “We do take responsibility. We should have followed up. We should have communicated better, because we do have a larger suite. So, for those larger breeds, we can accommodate them with multiple beds. And we’ve made sure that every suite has two beds in it now,” said leaders WTOC spoke with at Pet Paradise in Pooler.

Sarah says, “My dogs went on June 12th so between the 3rd--a dog’s death--- and the 12th when I took my dogs there, that death wasn’t serious enough for you to make sure that your facility is up to the standards of 20 years -- that you’ve had facilities across ten states, yeah.”

Sarah shared her experience online and received a flood of comments.

The most astonishing one? A bulldog died at Pet Paradise nearly a week before she booked her dogs to stay.

WTOC also spoke with the family of this dog, Zeus.

“Immediately, once we step out of the airplane, I receive a call from the pet parlor’s manager,” said Jose Ubiles, a previous Pet Paradise customer. “And he was like, I just want to let you know that Zeus did not make it. He got sick very quickly, and he passed away.”

3-year-old Zeus died from heat stress just six hours after check-in.

“They told me that at 10:30, they took him out for like a walk, like a playground. And I was like, okay, that’s totally fine. They usually do that here. And after that, they just pretty much put him right back, because it was very hot that day. And after that, from what they told me, he passed away like two hours after that. So like around 12:30,” said Ubiles.

“My wife and I feel like they ripped, like they broke our hearts,” he continued.

Jose Ubiles and his family got the same tour that Sarah had before booking their pets in the facility, along with multiple reassurances about climate control, constant monitoring, and 24/7 surveillance.

Jose says none of the cameras were pointing at either of their two dogs for the hours of their stay, as promised.

Something else also bothered Jose.

“Especially them saying that the whole area was climate-controlled and there was a fan,” said Ubiles. “And if they had fan and all that stuff, it wouldn’t, it wouldn’t have happened. Then not, him not being cooled down after. Because I usually, when I used to take him out, even if it was a hot day, I used to turn him a fan on or give him water. And even if it was like super hot, I’d give him a shower so he could cool off, and he’d be fine after that.”

Now, a space stands in their home for Zeus, who Jose says was like his first child.

I think that was one of the hardest thing is after the day I came and I had to recognize those at the hospital, I took Lucky with me so he can, you know, say goodbye to him. Because after that, he wasn’t gonna see him anymore. And, you know, I went there and I see his body and just I just start crying like immediately. And I see Lucky just trying to like wake him up just like he usually does. Yeah, it was it was awful. And then it was even worse when I call my wife and so I can show him the body because I wanted to say I want her to be able to say goodbye.

Jose Ubiles

The other dog of the Ubiles’ family is Lucky. His owners say since his stay he has suffered from anxiety, loss of appetite, and skin lesions.

The main frustration coming from hundreds of comments and these two heartbroken pet owners is that a pet boarding facility is supposed to be the experts on each dog’s breed.

“When we saw the reviews at first, there were no bad reviews. So we’re like, oh, this is probably a good fit for them. But if we had seen those reviews, it’s like we would never have been in that position to leave our dogs there. And it was kind of devastating... Also, just to not know what really happened,” said Ubiles.

Dina Beam, VP of Customer Experience and Resort Training, encourages people to still give the boarding facility a chance, under the new management now.

“It can go from zero to ten from excitement coming in, and that’s something that has to be monitored vigilantly. We have staff that does that,” said Dina Beam, VP of Customer Experience and Resort Training. “It’s not just from warm weather, it’s from excitement too. So they can be overexcited when they come in because all the pets are excited to get to the pool.”

She says regarding Zeus’ stay at the facility: “In Zeus’ case, should we have done it more? Yes, absolutely. And based on Zeus’ passing, we are enacting a couple of new policies where we’re going to require those breeds, the brachycephalic breeds, to be indoor only,” explained Beam. “Should we have been more vigilant with Zeus? Absolutely.”

Beam says an entirely new management team was brought in to the Pooler location since-- some of those new staff coming in from more experienced facilities.

New rules at Pet Paradise will allow a certain allotted time for dogs to be outside, but from June to September, they’re being extra cautious and limiting that time.

“Basically, the dogs were getting cared for, but it wasn’t to our standards. So as soon as we realized it, we sent a team in. We sent myself. I’ve been here for two weeks. And we sent other people from our headquarters to make sure that Pooler gets the highest standard of our 62 other locations,” said Beam.

“If we didn’t have high standards, we wouldn’t be in business that long,” said And we really love everybody who works in our organization. We’re here for the dogs. And safety is our number one concern. I really want people to understand that we take safety very seriously. And we want the community to come in, tour us, give us a chance.

Dina Beam, VP of Customer Experience and Resort Training

Despite their experiences though, Sarah and Jose’s family alike-- hope these changes prevent other pet owners from going through what she did.

“They’re experts... It’s not that hard to know what to expect and what you’ve got to do. So I just think it’s unfair for me and my wife and my daughter as well that we got to go through this, and especially my other dog, who he’s suffering really badly,” said Ubiles.

Bachi says, “You might want to take a moment to do a little bit more research, read the reviews, cause I did all of that, but now the negative reviews are starting to come in, and I wish I had known.”

As far as some of the new procedures Pet Paradise says they’re implementing:

So basically what’s going to happen is those (Brachycephalic) breeds will stay inside only in their suites. And the door will remain closed. And we will just potty walk them. And then there will be 10 minutes outside. We’re setting timers. And 30 minutes inside. Yes, absolutely. So we have three indoor play areas that we will use. So basically from 9 to 5, if they come for day camp, we will have them in an indoor play area, which is accessible by camera. So they’re public webcams that their families can watch.(3:59)And the door will remain open if they need to potty. They can go out on our turf area. But other than that, we will have a little swim time in the morning before 10 o’clock. But other than that, they won’t be outside during June and September.

Dina Beam, VP of Customer Experience and Resort Training.

In addition to firing previous management, Pet Paradise says they’re retraining all staff as well.