Everyone Is Outraged After a Dog Died of a Heat Stroke — It Was Allegedly a Moving Company's Fault
Published Sept. 23 2023, 8:48 a.m. ET
Every day I wonder if my dog knows I would literally die for him.
There’s no doubt that he’s the worst roommate ever. He doesn’t pay any rent, he throws up on the carpet, and he’s always begging for food. But he’s my best friend — moreover, he’s a member of the family.
This is true for most pet parents, who would be devastated if their furbaby died of heat exhaustion in the back of a van. That’s exactly what happened to TikTok user @mrvaughntrainor, who hired a moving company to transport the family pets across state lines to their new home in California.
A family’s dog died of heat exhaustion allegedly due to negligence on behalf of a moving company.
The poster, Eric Vaughn-Trainor, explained that he and his husband were getting their 7-month-old twin daughters ready for their flight from Houston, Texas to Calif. while they arranged for a pet transport service to come get their furbabies. Sadly, that was the last time they would ever see their French bulldog, Lumiere Vaughn-Trainor, alive.
“The last 24 hours [have] been an absolute nightmare,” Eric started the video. He learned that their dogs had been dropped off at their vet’s office and were in really bad shape.
“She asked if we were sitting down. And that's when she told us that our French Bulldog had died,” he continued tearfully. “She asked if anybody from Waggin Wheels Pet Transport had contacted us and the driver had not contacted us.”
The family later got an explanation from the transport driver, who suggested the dog had a heart attack.
The transport driver had an explanation as to what happened to Lumie, but it wasn’t a very good one.
“As soon as we got off the phone with our vet, we called the driver and that's when the driver told us that after he picked up our dogs, he drove for about an hour. And he was tired,” he went on. “So he checked on all the dogs. And he left the AC on and he went to sleep.”
When he woke up, he said, Lumie was dead. The vet noted that the driver's vehicle “reeked” of weed and cigarettes. To make matters worse, an autopsy revealed that the dog died three hours after they left home.
The moving company that killed a family’s French bulldogs paid for reviews — and then it backfired.
Upon further investigation, Eric discovered that the company was as sketchy as they come. Come to find out, all the reviews that led him to hire the company were fake.
After the video went viral, Waggin Wheels Pet Transport felt the wrath of social media. Dozens of people took to the internet and wrote nasty reviews — plenty of whom actually wrote their reviews under the wrong business! Apparently, Waggin Wheels is a popular business name.
Someone named James Watson, who was only one of the outraged people who wrote bad reviews on Trustpilot, wrote: “One star is being too kind!”
“A family is going to bed tonight knowing your negligence is the reason their family pet will never come home," the reviewer continued. "Shame on you! I pray your own dogs never experience what that customer's dog did.”
The company hasn’t issued a public apology, let alone commented on the tragic situation yet.
On behalf of Distractify, RIP Lumie! You will be missed.
