{"id":1043034,"date":"2026-09-04T14:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043034\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T14:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:37:13","slug":"chicago-man-ross-niehaus-owner-of-wheeling-waggles-pet-resort-charged-with-cruel-treatment-of-animals-after-dog-dies-in-hot-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043034\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago man Ross Niehaus, owner of Wheeling Waggles Pet Resort, charged with cruel treatment of animals after dog dies in hot van"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHEELING, Ill. (WLS) — The owner of a north suburban dog daycare facility has been charged with cruel treatment of animals after a dog in their car died after allegedly being left in a hot vehicle, Wheeling police said Friday.<\/p>\n

Ross Niehaus of Chicago was arrested Thursday<\/a>. He was released pending his next court appearance Saturday in Rolling Meadows.<\/p>\n

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Wheeling police said they received a complaint Wednesday that a dog in the care of Waggles Pet Resort had died.<\/p>\n

Steve Serota said his 6-year-old black Labrador retriever was more than a pet and was an important part of the family.<\/p>\n

According to Serota, a driver picked up Miller around 9 a.m. He said he later received a call around 4 p.m. informing him that the dog had died after apparently being left in a hot vehicle throughout the day.<\/p>\n

“He was the definition of a good boy,” Serota said.<\/p>\n

Serota said the family had sent Miller to Waggles Pet Resort dog daycare in Wheeling several times a week for the past five years. He said the daycare provided an opportunity for Miller to socialize with other dogs.<\/p>\n

Serota said that after receiving the call, he immediately went to the facility and found Miller still locked in a cage inside a van. He said he could not understand how staff apparently forgot the 110-pound dog.<\/p>\n

“It defies rationale. This was a happy loving member of our family who was left in a hot vehicle for hours. He didn’t deserve that,” Serota said.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO |<\/strong> Chicago weather: Extreme Heat Warning in effect for parts of area; CPS adjusting outdoor activities<\/a><\/p>\n

Serota described Miller’s death as an inexplicable mistake and said explaining what happened has been extremely difficult for the family.<\/p>\n

Waggles, which describes itself as a premier resort for pets, released a statement addressing the incident.<\/p>\n

“We are devastated about the incident involving a dog on one of our buses yesterday. As dog lovers, the thought of any dog harmed breaks our hearts, and today we are grieving with the family,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

The family said it is speaking publicly in hopes of preventing similar incidents in the future.<\/p>\n

“I wanna make sure everyone is aware of this. There has to be accountability when things like this happen. This can’t happen,” Serota said.<\/p>\n

The owner of Waggles said the company is reaching out to customers individually to discuss the situation.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WHEELING, Ill. (WLS) — The owner of a north suburban dog daycare facility has been charged with cruel…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1043035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[417697,960,5386,1818],"class_list":["post-1043034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-417697","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117213282181632965","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}