Two hours after dropping her cats off at a groomer at Sunshine Place in Choa Chu Kang, a pawrent in Singapore arrived at the salon to find her orange Persian "shivering in pain and in fear".

The tip of her cat's ear had been cut off in a grooming accident.

"They said that our cat was moving around when the incident happened, but that's part of their job — they're supposed to be able to handle these pets moving around during their grooming sessions!" the cat's owner, who wanted to be known as Ashlynn, told Mothership.

"They are living beings, how can you expect them to be still as a doll during grooming sessions??"

The family has since sought medical attention for the cat, Amri. She is now recovering from an infection.

"Permanently disfigured"

Photos of Amri and a vet's report seen by Mothership showed that a small portion of the cat's ear has been removed — around 5-6mm.

The tip of her ear now has a jagged, uneven edge, and she had "mild trembling because of pain and fear", according to the vet's report.

"She has been mentally and physically hurt, and permanently disfigured," Ashlynn said.

Ever since the incident, Amri has supposedly displayed signs of trauma, avoiding humans and refusing to play with her toys.

"Amri used to be an outgoing, playful and friendly four-year-old kitten, who has never once turned down the opportunity to play with teasers and ribbons. She was a ball of energy and sunshine," Ashlynn said.

"However, since the incident happened, she has been shivering in fear, refusing to play with the toys she used to love, and hiding away from us.

All of this is extremely unusual from her typical behaviour."

Still collected fees

According to Ashlynn, who posted about the incident on TikTok, the groomer apologised, waived the grooming fee for Amri, and offered them a tube of antiseptic cream.

However, they still charged the full fee for her other cat, and attributed the accident to Amri "moving around" during the session.

"I doubt the groomer was actually remorseful as he showed signs of only caring about profits earned through still collecting the fees for my other cat, as well as giving excuses for his actions by saying that my cat was moving around," Ashlynn said.

She added that Amri has never shown any signs of acting out while being groomed at home, apart from "meowing from time to time".

They also "trusted that [their] cats would be in good hands" as they have been patronising the groomer since December 2020.

Ashlynn also pointed out that the vet allegedly did not contact her ahead of time, or seek medical attention for Amri at the vet — even though it was "so close by", Ashlynn said.

"What we wanted the groomer to do was to bring our cat to the vet if possible ASAP...and contact us ASAP upon discovering what he did," she elaborated, adding that she "wouldn't mind" covering the cost.

"[But] we only found out about what he did once we went down to collect our cats."

When contacted by Mothership, the salon said "no comment".

Top image courtesy of Ashlynn.