Another video alleges abuse against Outagamie Co. dog trainer
BLACK CREEK, Wis. (WBAY) - There’s another disturbing video alleging abuse against a dog trainer in Black Creek.
It comes as questions are also being raised over whether In Touch Dog Training is remaining open based on emails to current clients, after the owner, Allen Burnsworth previously said his intent was to close.
Two videos are now being reviewed by the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department.
The latest, involves Jenni Wright’s six month old puppy whose name is Ace.
“Ace was underneath the table and you could see that Allen was trying to do something with him. Ace was scared, he wouldn’t come out so Allen grabbed him by the leash and yanked him across the floor and he probably slid about ten to fifteen feet across the floor,” said Wright who lives in Freedom.
On Tuesday Burnsworth told Action 2 News, he was closing after another video was shared across social media where Burnsworth is shown holding up a dog by a leash, before dropping the dog to the ground.
Burnsworth says that dog was aggressive, and he was preventing it from biting another trainer who sought his help.
You can watch that story by clicking here.
”It’s permanently closed. We still have some client dogs that we’re taking care of that are out of town and we’ve spoken to them, we’ve explained what’s going on. We’ve spoken to anybody and everybody who is hear today and several people have picked up their dogs, but several people have left their dogs,” Burnsworth reiterated once again on Thursday.
On Tuesday a Google listing, had the business listed as “permanently closed,” causing some viewers to contact Action 2 News after the listing changed, to “open,” two days later.
Burnsworth said Thursday he was unaware of the change since he relies on a webmaster.
He also pointed out, he has a 4.9 rating on Google and more than 170 positive reviews after being in business 15 years.
Burnsworth added, “The allegations of abuse have been determined to be unfounded and I’m confident that when the report comes out, and I was told three to five business days that, that’s going to be the case.”
He also says he’s received numerous death threats.
“This has been completely taken out of context,” Burnsworth stated.
A former employee, Shaunna Herrick recorded both videos off a security camera before she quit over the incident, and now another former worker who asked not to be identified tells us, she too had concerns.
“I was never once saw in the entire time I was there, and still do not believe at all that any of the trainers or associates would ever do anything to harm the dogs and in fact, a lot of us stayed thru a lot of things that were hard to protect the dogs,” she said, telling us she was fired by Burnsworth in January of 2020.
Action 2 News asked the sheriff’s department about a timetable for this investigation.
They were not able to provide an immediate answer.
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