MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — Brandon Rivero said he found his beloved 5-year-old Chinese Shar Pei dog named Ringo dead after trusting him to a groomer in Miami-Dade County.

Rivero said Ringo was supposed to get a nail trim, a bath, and come home on July 3. All he has to remember him by are pictures, his collar, and paw prints.

“He was so lovable,” Rivero said. “He was like a teddy bear ... his favorite thing was to kind of like lay on my arm and just be there.”

Rivero said he also dropped off his two other dogs, Prince and Diva, on July 3 at the same grooming business. Ringo weighed 50 pounds.

“I did advise them that Ringo is a reactive dog, he gets nervous, he jumps around, he gets anxious,” Rivero said, adding that he also told the groomer, “If he gets nervous, call me! I’ll come flying over here, I’m nearby, I’ll be in the area.”

Rivero said he helped the groomer to place a tight leather muzzle on Ringo.

Rivero said he “had a reasonable expectation” that the owner would contact him if there was an issue. Within 30 minutes of the drop-off, they called.

“I get a call from them saying, ‘Hey! Your dog is dying! Come now’ And, I was in shock ... I called again and I said, ‘Call a veterinarian! What’s your protocol? Call a veterinarian to make sure that my dog is safe! And, ‘Oh no! We can’t do that, come now’ and hangs up the phone,” Rivero said.

Ringo was dead, wrapped in blankets on a grooming table when he arrived, and he called the police.

“One of his dogs passed away during the grooming process by unknown causes,” a Miami Springs police officer wrote in a report.

Miami-Dade Animal Services personnel responded and conducted an investigation.

Records show the owner told the investigator “that they cut the pet’s nails and during the cutting, the pet was trying to resist. He was placed in the tub for a shower and suddenly collapsed.”

“when we did the police report, they simply said that he collapsed in water. they did not… wait say that again. that he collapsed in water. what does that mean? i wish i knew.”

we spoke with the groomer’s representation by phone and they emailed this statement saying in part: ringo suffered a cardiac event... absolutely no evidence suggests his death resulted from mistreatment of any kind by our client."

Rivero said the groomer had only cut four nails, and one had blood on it. He took pictures of the incomplete nail trim. He also paid to have a necropsy done by an independent board-certified veterinary pathologist.

“The ultimate cause of his passing is attributed to cardiac arrest, but the mechanism behind the loss of heart function is not clear in his case,” the pathologist wrote in a four-page report.

There was hemorrhage “possibly” because of the muzzle and underlying heart disease, but the results are inconclusive. Rivero said Ringo was a healthy dog. The mystery as to how this young dog died may never be fully understood.

“It’s so devastating to lose such a loving dog,” Rivero said.

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