Posted: July 6, 2009, 5 a.m. EDT
My Chemical Romance drummer Bob Bryar is suing dog trainer Daniel Schaffer after the musician’s German Shepherd Dog died under mysterious circumstances while in the trainer’s care.
“I don’t even know what happened to my best friend and miss her more than anything in the world,” Bryar told People. “The devastation I feel is beyond words.”
According to court papers filed in Burbank, Calif., Superior Court, Bryar alleges breach of contract, fraud, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress against Schaffer, a self-proclaimed “dog trainer to the stars.”
In the lawsuit, Bryar says he paid $7,500 in April to send his dog Dixie – whom Bryar calls “the most important thing in his life” – to Schaffer’s kennel for training to help the formerly abused rescue dog adjust to a new dog in the household.
When Bryar called one week later to check on the dog, Schaffer reported that Dixie had been killed when a drunk driver struck the vehicle in which Schaffer was carrying Dixie and other dogs.
Later that evening, “Schaffer called [Bryar] again and informed him that he could not say goodbye to Dixie for she had been ‘cremated due to her condition,’” the lawsuit says.
Two days later, the trainer “delivered an urn allegedly containing Dixie’s remains,” the suit says. When Bryar demanded a police report confirming the crash, Schaffer changed his story and said Dixie had died in her sleep.
Schaffer has not filed a response to the lawsuit, and did not return calls seeking comment.