Stevens also ordered not to have custody of animals and to take 8-week anger management course
A Sarasota pet groomer who was charged about 18 months ago with animal abuse at a South Tamiami Trail business pleaded “No Contest” this week to five misdemeanor counts, the Sarasota Police Department announced.
Diana Jeneane Stevens, 42, was arrested on March 8, 2024 and charged with five counts of aggravated animal abuse (a felony) and five counts of animal cruelty (a misdemeanor), as The Sarasota News Leader reported.
At the time she was taken into custody, Stevens was identified as a North Fort Myers resident. Her business was called Woof Gang Bakery and Dog Grooming; it stood at 1129 S. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota.
News Leader research found that the business was part of a chain, as other franchises exist in Sarasota County.
On Wednesday, Aug. 27, after Stevens made her formal pleas, 12th Judicial Circuit Judge Dana Moss ordered her to serve five years of probation, court records showed. The document said Stevens will not be allowed to groom animals or have custody or control of animals. However, she will be able to reside in a home where animals are present if the owners of those animals testify to the necessity of such an arrangement, the court document indicated.
Further, she was ordered to complete an eight-week anger management class and perform 250 hours of community service, unless she chose to pay the court $15 per each of those hours.
Stevens also must undergo a mental health evaluation, and she must comply with any recommended treatment, the document said.
Stevens will be allowed to apply for early termination of her probation after four years, the document noted.
In early 2024, the Sarasota Police Department release reported, detectives initially were investigating Stevens’ dog-grooming franchise in regard to potential financial crimes “when they uncovered a pattern of animal abuse by Stevens, the owner of the business.”
The Probable Cause Affidavit in Stevens’ case detailed a number of examples of her alleged abuse of animals that she groomed, as the News Leader reported.
One witness told investigators that “Stevens would smack and hit dogs, she was rough with cats and would hit them, she would jerk the cats around and flip them over and she would tether the cats while she groomed them, which is dangerous,” the affidavit said. “That witness explained to the investigators that “tethering a cat could cause the cat’s neck to break.”
Further, the witness told detectives that Stevens would “grab the dogs by the scruff out of frustration and she was aggressive with them while she groomed them.”
That witness and a second one also recounted that Stevens and another employee had purchased numerous puppies, including French bulldogs, to sell. The bulldogs were kept at the shop, the affidavit noted. The puppies “were in a small kennel in unsanitary conditions … living in their own urine and feces.” One witness reported that one of those puppies died after having been left alone overnight, unsupervised, in a sink/bathing tub.
Stevens allegedly “placed the puppy into a cardboard box [and] kept it at the store for a while until [she] did something with it.” The witness was unsure of what happened to the deceased puppy, the affidavit said.
On one occasion, the affidavit continued, Stevens allegedly was bathing a golden doodle that weighed about 75 or 80 pounds, which was proving difficult to handle. She called the dog “ ‘a piece of s**t,’ and then punched it with a closed fist several times in the ribs and abdomen.”
Sarasota Police Department detectives obtained a search warrant for the business and then “collected video evidence of animal abuse,” the department’s news release continued. The video appeared “to support allegations that Stevens beat and tossed animals as she groomed them,” it added