‘She’s a criminal’: Dog trainer facing charges after pup dies, another disappears
NORWICH, Conn. (WBZ) - A Massachusetts family is mourning the loss of their French bulldog, who they say died after they sent it to Connecticut for training.
The trainer now faces charges, and another woman in California says she’s a victim too.
Charlie was a 3-year-old purebred French bulldog.
When his owners, the Hanson family, became worried about his behavior around their toddler, they looked for a trainer.
They hired a woman advertising on an app called Thumbtack.
According to North Reading police, that woman, identified as Josephine Ragland, is facing charges after taking hundreds of dollars the Hanson family paid her.
Ragland is also accused of lying to police about what happened to Charlie.
The dog’s body was found later in the woods off a Connecticut highway, authorities said.
According to a necropsy, Charlie was emaciated with nothing in his stomach.
Carolina Bruchilari said a similar situation happened to her in California this past January.
She said she also found Ragland through an online ad. According to Bruchilari, she paid the trainer $2,000 to train the family’s German shepherd named Scott.
But the dog owner said she hasn’t seen Scott since handing him off to Ragland.
“Instead of bringing back Scott, she brought back another dog. My son told us that the dog was not our Scott,” Bruchilari said. “Scott disappeared, and we have never seen him again.”
North Reading police said Ragland spoke to them last week.
In a 15-page report, officers detailed a three-hour conversation where she allegedly changed her story, saying Charlie collapsed and that she had been on a bender at a casino every day before and after work as she has issues with gambling.
“She’s a criminal. She’s a criminal,” Bruchilari said.
Ragland currently has a court date scheduled in October where she is facing charges that include larceny by false pretenses.
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