Investigation of Animal Abuse Resulting in Dog’s Death at Your Dog’s Best Friends Facility; Groomer Charged and Arrested

Alexandria, VA (July 22, 2025) On December 13, 2024, our Animal Services team was contacted by an anonymous former employee of Your Dog’s Best Friends regarding one dog’s death and abuse to several other dogs that occurred while the dogs were being groomed at the Your Dog’s Best Friends facility, located at 2000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA 22301.

The former employee provided initial video evidence, which indicated the cruelty occurred at the hands of one groomer. Our Animal Services team, with direct support from the Alexandria Police Department, served a search warrant for additional video evidence on January 24, 2025. 

This resulted in a seizure of more than 600 hours of video footage. Our Chief of Animal Services, along with the Alexandria Police Department, also began interviewing witnesses. In late June/early July, charges were sent to a grand jury for consideration. The grand jury certified charges and an arrest warrant was issued for one groomer employed at Your Dog’s Best Friends last week. The groomer, Kevin Sanders, was arrested on July 21, 2025.

Sanders has been charged with 1 felony cruelty charge for the death of a dog named Abigail, which occurred on July 12, 2024, and 4 class 1 misdemeanor charges for abuse to other dogs seen in the seized video evidence, which spanned from December 17, 2024 to January 24, 2025. Sanders was still employed at Your Dog’s Best Friends at the time of the arrest.

No complaint against Your Dog’s Best Friends was made by Abigail’s owner because the events that led to the dog’s death were undisclosed by the facility. 

Animal grooming facilities, similar to animal boarding facilities, are not subject to annual inspections by a state agency, and instead are only subject to inspection if a complaint is filed. 

The complaint filed against Your Dog’s Best Friends on December 13, 2024, was the second to be investigated by our agency. The other complaint against this business was filed on December 3, 2021 and concerned a dog who became ill after being boarded at the facility. In this case, our Animal Services team found insufficient evidence that the dog’s illness was a direct result of any care or lack thereof on the part of Your Dog’s Best Friends. The first complaint did not involve Sanders.

We encourage animal guardians to do extensive research when choosing any animal-related grooming, boarding or sitting services or facilities. Find a list of things to consider and ask when choosing an animal boarding or animal grooming facility here.

Our Animal Services team has been working diligently on this investigation, and the investigation is ongoing. We will release additional information when it becomes available. 

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We are unable to provide any further details in this case. You can direct any other questions to the Commonwealth’s Attorney Office

 

Erin Shackelford
Senior Manager of Communications & Event Marketing
eshackelford@AlexandriaAnimals.org
703-746-5656