Florida pet groomer arrested on animal cruelty charges

at five customers trusted her to take care of their pets but instead police say the groomer abused them repeatedly they say Diana Stevens was caught on camera beating berating and tossing animals around at Wolf Gang Bakery and grooming in Sarasota as Fox 13's Kimberly Quon reports the business was already being investigated for other alleged crimes when detectives uncover the abuse what started as an investigation into a fin fincial crime turned into a large scale animal abuse case and Sarasota

police believe there are additional victims of Diana Stevens this is all buch let out in handcuffs 41-year-old Diana Stevens told officers she did nothing wrong she's lying to you all these people are lying but investigators with the Sarasota Police Department say it was all captured unted to press play Rewind pause and to explain in such detail the the violence that was occurring in this business it's hard on anybody while they can't release the surveillance video officer say Stevens the owner

of Wolf Gang Bakery and grooming on US 41 punched hit and even threw animals in their carriers against the wall wild part about this case there's no way to know how long this has been going on um the five instances we found on surveillance video that was just a 17-day period current impass customers say it's a lot to process I was shocked and then I was completely devastated knowing that I had this intuition Bethany Simmons is speaking now in hopes of helping other pet owners she stopped bringin

g her 5-year-old dog mango to Stevens after noticing a change in Behavior he was shaking when he went in there um which was unusual behavior and then also there were times where he Ur urinated on the floor um so that just wasn't something that I've ever witnessed he's been other groomers Stevens has a lengthy criminal history out of Lee County including battery domestic violence and Grand Theft wolf gangs corporate office told Fox 13 they have terminated the franchise agreement and the location

is in the process of being unbranded the business for now is closed as customers are still searching for answers they've really got a mental issue there's no doubt about that you know and let somebody try to do the same thing to them the Sarasota Police Department expects additional charges to be filed and possibly against other employees in Sarasota Kimberly quisan Fox 13 News