After an influencer couple went viral in August when their dog died at a boarding facility, a California congressman has introduced a bill to hold facilities more accountable when pets are harmed or killed.
Republican Rep. James Gallagher introduced the legislation, called “Dunkin’s Law,” named for the couple’s Bernese mountain dog. It would expand the state’s Animal Welfare Act “to provide for the protection of companion animals held or cared for at certain facilities,” according to the bill’s text.
The bill would classify pets as “sentient beings” and allow owners of pets that were harmed or killed at boarding and similar facilities to bring action against the facilities to recover damages and other lost expenses.
“There needs to be greater protections and teeth when something like this happens,” Gallagher told NBC News on Tuesday.
He said he hopes not only that the legislation protects families of pets that were hurt or that died but that it also ensures that no-kill shelters do not euthanize dogs and cats in “these horrific ways.”
“Make these people actually live up to their word, have accountability, especially for the kind of mistreatment and neglect that we’ve seen in these cases,” Gallagher said. “Hopefully, what it ultimately leads to is this doesn’t happen, that the disincentives are so strong that these guys really up their game and we don’t have bad actors.”
Two events prompted Gallagher to introduce the bill, he said in a release accompanying the announcement.
The first occurred in June, when Humboldt County sheriff’s investigators uncovered mass burial sites at a Northern California animal rescue facility. As part of an investigation into the shelter, officials recovered intact remains of 117 dogs, as well as other skeletal remains. Preliminary examinations of some of the dogs’ remains showed evidence of gunshot wounds.
“What investigators uncovered in Humboldt County is absolutely sickening,” Gallagher said in the release. “People entrusted these animals to a rescue believing they would be protected, only for authorities to discover more than a hundred dead dogs buried on the property.”
The second was in August, when Loud Luxury DJ Andrew Fedyk and his wife, Madeleine White Fedyk, said their dog Dunkin died at a board-and-train facility in Los Angeles.
Andrew Fedyk told NBC News in September that they chose to leave their two dogs, Dunkin and Poutine, at Smart Dogs Training, which is owned and operated by trainer Jeff Todd, while they went on vacation. He said that they found the business’ page online and that the flood of positive reviews prompted them to book their dogs, thinking basic leash training could help their already well-behaved pets.
But hours after they arrived in Europe, Fedyk said, Todd called to tell him Dunkin had died. Todd is alleged to have told Fedyk that the two dogs had been playing outside during a heat wave and that Dunkin died on the way to a separate boarding facility after “showing signs of heat exhaustion.”
Fedyk said Todd did not take Dunkin to a veterinarian. Poutine was OK and was later returned to the Fedyks.
Fedyk and his wife shared Dunkin’s story with their combined almost 2.5 million followers on social media, which he said prompted “a bunch of people” to reach out with individual stories about similar experiences.
Andrew Fedyk did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Todd did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. When NBC News reached out in August, he declined to comment on Dunkin’s case.
In August, Los Angeles Animal Services said it was investigating the incident involving Dunkin. The agency did not immediately respond to an emailed request for more information sent Tuesday morning.
Los Angeles police declined to provide recent records for 911 calls and police reports relating to Todd’s address, citing an open investigation. The police department did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment sent Tuesday morning.
“Their heartbreaking story, along with the horrific discovery of more than 100 dead dogs at a Northern California rescue, exposes a serious gap in how we protect companion animals and hold those responsible for their care accountable,” Gallagher said of the Fedyks in an Instagram post announcing the legislation.
Gallagher said Dunkin’s story is why he is introducing this bill, calling it “legislation that would give pet owners a path to seek justice when their animals suffer harm or neglect at covered facilities, while strengthening accountability for unlawful euthanasia at rescues and shelters.”
Gallagher told NBC News on Tuesday that Dunkin’s case spurred the law, especially after he spoke to Fedyk and Madeleine White Fedyk, who he said expressed frustration and concern that there was no recourse — even though the couple does not fall within his constituency.
“Dunkin represents all of these dogs,” Gallagher said. “These have been some of the most horrendous examples, and we want to make sure it doesn’t ever happen again.”