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A Toronto family is grieving the loss of their four-year-old Samoyed, Chilly, after reportedly sending him for a routine walk with their dog walker — and it's not the first time the walker has been accused of putting an animal in harm's way.
Anne Chirakal and Jeff Cochran say their dog walker Scott Howley of Fun Dogs, who they had been using for their family pets since 2014, left their beloved pet in a hot car on May 30, which allegedly resulted in his death.
"We loved him as much as our babies," said Chirakal. "He deserved a much longer life."
Cochran says Howley came to pick up Chilly for his regular weekday walk from around 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, May 30, expecting that he would take Chilly to the park and return him to the family's Bloor West Village home afterward.
At around 5:15 p.m., Cochran noticed Chilly still wasn't home and decided to reach out to the dog walker.
"I assumed that Scott still had him. You know, perhaps they'd had a longer day for some reason or some perfectly legitimate reason why Chilly wasn't home yet," said Cochran.
Chilly.Courtesy of Anne Chirakal
Cochran sent Howley a text, and after 10 minutes, he says he followed up with a phone call.
"He picked up the phone and said, 'Hey, how's it going,' like you would casually answering the phone for anything, and I said, 'Hey, do you have Chilly?'"
Cochran says he heard a "commotion" on the other line, and for a moment, he thought he had caught Howley putting away groceries, but then he heard the sound of a door swinging open and Howley running.
"I heard him running and then opening the car and screaming, 'He's dead. He's dead' and then sobbing uncontrollably."
Cochran said Howley's wife then picked up the phone and told him that Chilly was dead before asking him what he wanted to do.
"I was in complete shock, as you can imagine. It's like a movie, you know, playing out in front of you that you're hearing the soundtrack to," Cochran recounted.
"I said I need to call my wife, and then I would call them back and let them know what we wanted to do."
After a heartbreaking call to Chirakal on her drive home from work, the couple both decided to drive over and pick up Chilly.
"We could see him and his wife on the porch. After we parked and came up to the porch, he had gone inside. She said he was too distraught to see us," said Cochran.
"They had taken Chilly out of the car, wrapped him in a blanket. He was on the front porch, and I'll never forget his face. Tongue hanging out of his mouth, and his ear was soaked in drool, presumably from lying in it while he was starting to shut down."
Chirakal says when they both saw him, they collapsed onto him in tears, while Howley's wife reassured them they were never going to work with dogs again and that they would pay for any services.
"We weren't hearing it, nor in the headspace. She was concerned that he was going to get arrested."
Chirakal and Cochran took Chilly's body to their vet, where they confirmed he was dead and made arrangements to cremate his remains.
The couple went home and explained to their twin daughters where Chilly had gone and sat in their grief. The following morning, they notified Toronto Police Services, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Canadian Dog Walkers Association (CDWA).
Toronto Police Services confirmed to Narcity that an investigation into the incident is ongoing, although no charges have been laid and no allegations have been proven in court.
The CDWA confirmed to Narcity that the Provincial Animal Welfare Services are investigating the incident alongside the police.
"CDWA and the wider community of dog walkers are committed to keeping the pressure on the investigators, so we see a result this time," said Executive Director Renée Beauchamp.
"Scott Howley was not charged/convicted for the first death (Teddy) because the officer felt charges wouldn't stick. We want it to stick this time."
A similar story
Clarke Struthers told Global News that his dog, Teddy, had also died in Howley's care in 2018.
Struthers says Howley told him that he had dropped Teddy off but that after a confrontation, he switched his story and said that the dog had escaped out of a window.
Struthers told Global News that he and his friends looked around the city for Teddy before Howley admitted that Teddy had been left in the heat.
"My wife and I feel so bad for Chilly and his family. This is a horrific event, and we are shocked that it happened again. We are sad another animal had to suffer under Scott's care but are hopeful the authorities can intervene to stop this from happening again," Struthers told Narcity.
In 2019, Howley's lawyer came to Cochran with very "basic details" of what had happened with Teddy and asked him for a character reference for his court case regarding Teddy.
"He had come to us and said there had been a tragic accident that had occurred. A dog had died, he'd forgotten it in the car. He said it had completely, you know, disrupted his family life, and he was under mental duress," Cochran said.
Having had no issue with Howley in his years of service and not knowing all the details, he decided to provide him with one.
When Chirakal read the article about Teddy and learned more details, she says she "threw up."
"There's a lot of self-guilt about trusting and allowing our boy to, you know, go out, but I can't change anything now. He's gone," said Cochran.
Chirakal and Cochran say now they are looking for justice for Teddy and Chilly and that justice immediately means Howley no longer can work with animals.
"We're not looking for money, we're not looking for damages. We just need the accountability to be there," said Cochran. "Beyond that, more broadly, we would like to see [...] some regulations put into place to, you know, help govern dog walking since it is such a large industry. To just, again, help ensure that resources are there for people to look up and validate who they're talking to about being their dog walker."
Narcity reached out to Howley for comment, but he did not respond in time for publication.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.