CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A West Ashley pet groomer says a video circulating on Facebook showing a man abusing a cat has been posted months later to harm the shop’s reputation.
Carolina Grooming posted on its Facebook page about the security video whose timestamp indicates it was recorded on May 19.
The footage,which has been posted to YouTube, shows one employee grooming a dog and another grooming a cat. An off-camera dog is heard crying throughout the video.
At one point, a shirtless man enters the frame and helps the employee hold a cat on a grooming table. The cat resists attempts to hold it down, eventually biting or scratching the man, who then picks it up and throws it on the floor.
The owner of the salon, Daryl Kornickey, says he retired three years ago because of health issues but remained the owner. He says he left another employee to run the store. That employee, he says, tried to conceal the incident.
“The manager tried to hide this video and was fired once it was seen," a Facebook post on the salon’s website states. "Now he’s using this video to ruin the shops reputation when he in fact was the one running the shop.”
Kornickey says the man who threw the cat was an employee hired by the manager who was since fired. That man has also since been terminated, he said.
Kornickey says he does not know the identity of the animal or its owner but says he feels terrible about what happened that day.
The post also claims the former employee used fake Google accounts and has encouraged others to post fake reviews.
“We are Carolina grooming pride ourselves on loving your pets as they were our own,” the post states. “We are very sorry for this ugly incident and hope you keep supporting us. Thank you and God bless.”
A man identifying himself as the former manager says he was not fired, but left on his own accord.
Charleston County Sheriff’s Capt. Roger Antonio says his agency has no record of a report on the incident.
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