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Officials Cite Dog Training School After German Shepherd Loses Eye

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) - The woman who runs a Fort Collins dog training school says she will fight to clear her name after her business was cited by the Larimer Humane Society for alleged animal cruelty.

The citation comes after a six week investigation into injuries to a five month old German shepherd named Baron who was at American Dog School in early September.

Baron's owner, Tiffany Brown, told CBS4 that Baron is recovering well after losing his eye and undergoing a difficult stay at the Colorado State Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

"He had five separate skull fractures. Three skull fractures to the right side where he lost the eye," Brown said.

It's unknown how Baron was hurt. When Brown went to pick him up, the school's owner came running out to them with the dog in her arms.

"She was saying that she just discovered this, that it must have just happened."

Brown says according to veterinarians the injuries were at least 24 hours old.

"I just don't buy that you wouldn't notice (a dog) with an eyeball bulging out of its head," she told CBS4.

Tammi Carrasco, the school's operator, wrote in an email to CBS4 that on the morning Baron was picked up she "walked through her kennel at 11 a.m." and that "everything was calm and quiet. When his owner came at about 12:30 p.m., I called him, he ran to me, I picked him up and saw his eye."

Carrasco, who was unable to do an on-camera interview with CBS4 on Wednesday, insists she would never hurt or neglect Baron and she said she is going to fight the citation and clear her name.

Carrasco will make a court appearance on the animal cruelty charge in December.

"I left him there to be cared for and he was left to be severely injured and then no one sought immediate medical attention," Brown said.

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