Thursday, October 1, 2026
A Wantagh family is still searching for answers, weeks after their almost 4-year-old German shepherd, Jet, died at a local pet boarding facility — and the Nassau County district attorney’s office is now investigating the circumstances surrounding her death.
The Town of Hempstead also issued PawDorf, on Wantagh Ave., a Notice of Violation, ordering the business to immediately cease and desist from a “non permitted use.”
The notice cites a violation under Article 16, Section 196 of the Town of Hempstead B20 code. It warns that failure to comply could result in summonses being issued.
The Town declined to provide additional details, saying the matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the district attorney’s office.
PawDorf did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
For Richard Gouldsbury and his family, the investigation comes after they spent weeks trying to determine what happened to Jet. The Gouldsburys dropped her off at PawDorf on the evening of July 10, before they left for vacation. Richard said the family checked in with the facility two days later, and was told Jet was doing fine. The facility also sent the family photos of her during her stay, he said. Then, on the morning of July 15, Gouldsbury received a message asking him to call. When he did, he talked with a staff member.
“He told me that the person came in at around 5 a.m., let the animals out to do their business, put them back in their cages and checked back in on them around 7, and she had passed,” Gouldsbury said. That was essentially all the explanation the family received about Jet’s death, he said.
Gouldsbury told a staff member that they were still away, and asked what could be done with Jet. PawDorf arranged for a crematorium to pick the dog up, he said, after he asked whether the facility had a contact that could help.
Gouldsbury emphasized that, in hindsight, he and his family wish they had been able to have Jet independently examined before she was cremated. But at the time, he said, they were stunned and grieving and relied on the facility to help them determine what to do. “There was no opportunity to see the dog,” Gouldsbury said.
The family returned home and picked up Jet’s ashes from the crematorium. Then they collected her belongings, including her food, collar and harness, at PawDorf. It wasn’t until they got home, Gouldsbury said, that they noticed the condition of the harness. “The strap was basically torn in half and shredded up really bad,” he said.
The family contacted PawDorf several days later, seeking an explanation. Gouldsbury said the facility denied that anything had happened to Jet, and suggested that the harness could have arrived at the facility that way or been damaged during play with other dogs.
The family also asked to see surveillance footage from the facility. According to Gouldsbury, PawDorf declined, citing security concerns and saying there probably would not be footage of Jet in her cage, anyway.
The family has since spoken with attorneys, the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter as it tried to determine what options were available.
Gouldsbury said the family plans to give Jet’s harness, and photos of it, to investigators as part of its effort to find answers. “Without answers, there’s only questions,” he said.
Now, with the D.A.’s office involved and the Town having issued the violation, he hopes the circumstances surrounding Jet’s death can finally be established. He said he also hoped that other pet owners will treat the incident as a warning to ask questions before leaving their animals in someone else’s care.
But ultimately, he said, the family wants to prevent another family from experiencing the same loss. “Nothing’s going to bring our dog back,” Gouldsbury said. “We would like to prevent this from ever happening again to somebody else.”
For Richard, Jet was far more than a pet. He retired about four years ago, around the same time the family got the dog, and, he said, he spent much of the subsequent three years with her while other members of his family were working. “She was my baby,” he said. “We bonded.”
He described Jet as playful, intelligent and loving, saying she adored people and simply loved to play. “She was just a wonderful, wonderful dog,” he said
For the Gouldsburys, that bond is what makes the unanswered questions surrounding Jet’s final days so difficult.
“We were told by the SPCA that this happens all the time,” Richard said, referring to deaths involving animals in various types of care. “You should be very careful in trusting your pet, which is really truly a member of the family, to somebody.”
