London - After spending three days on holiday abroad with her family, Kirsten Kinch was excited about seeing her beloved pet husky.
But the dog lover was shocked to learn that, not only had Nova died at the boarding kennels where she had been staying, but staff had squashed her remains into a black bin bag and wrapped her up in brown parcel tape.
They told her Nova, who was on medication for gut problems but been given the all clear to go to the kennels by a vet just days before Kinch’s short trip, had died that morning.
Kennel owner Paddy Cullen claimed the dog was too big to fit in his freezer and he had no choice but to parcel Nova up in case she was suffering from a virus that could infect other animals.
But Kinch said she had been left traumatised by the "horrible" treatment of her pet.
Referring to the moment she and her mother were told that Nova had died, the Amazon worker said: "We were beyond devastated. I thought it was some horrible joke, considering we had left a healthy dog three days earlier. She was part of the family and very special, so I was really shocked.
"I was then brought in to see my gorgeous dog. She had been put into a black bin bag and pushed into a ball.
"They had got brown masking tape and covered the bin bag. There was clearly so little care. I questioned if she had received her medication and I was told she had. We drove straight to the vet (who) was horrified and couldn’t believe there was a 25kg husky wrapped in this black bag."
The vet confirmed the remains were that of Nova, who was receiving steroids for colitis – a condition which causes inflammation of the colon – via her microchip.
Her body was sent for a post-mortem which concluded she died of internal bleeding.