01/12/2024
Firstly I need to say a huge thank you for all the lovely messages and phone calls I have had from so many Puptopia customers and the wider dog community including dog walkers and other dog parks, it means a lot to me.
In light of recent speculation and misinformation being spread surrounding Puptopia, I need to clarify the facts to give transparency to my customers.
People are being informed publicly that Kate, who owns the land, was running Puptopia from the start, and I was no more than a manager/employee. This is not true at all.
I did all the day today running of Puptopia dog park, I own the business Puptopia: The bank account, booking system, customer database, card payment platform, insurance, website hosting, social media accounts, domain name, Google business account and email accounts are all registered in my name and paid for by me. Additionally, the logo, company name and website are my intellectual property, I designed and created them, with the company name being a registered trademark registered to me.
I think it would be pretty unlikely for an employee/manager to have the business bank account in their name and have full intellectual property rights for the business!
I also paid rent for the use of the land/park as Kate owns the land Puptopia was on, including the physical Park fences etc.
I was told to leave with only one week's notice because Kate now wants to run a dog park herself. The business on the land (Puptopia) is mine, I organised and ran everything every day. All the day to day running of Puptopia was me. Kate provided the land, fences, the physical park (the reason some people will have seen her and may have spoken to her down there), I am the lady with the bright red hair if you also met me down there on my regular visits to check the park.
I sought a rental agreement multiple times, but unfortunately, this was never provided for me, I should learn not to trust people to keep to their word.
I have dedicated a year of hard work and passion to build Puptopia up to where it is now, including ensuring that everything ran like clockwork behind the scenes. I did everything; all the planning permission, designing the brand, building the website, setting up the booking system, all the marketing and social media posts were me, going down rain or shine and checking and cleaning Puptopia three times a week, speaking to my lovely customers on the phone, responding to emails and messages and helping everyone. The bank account, payment platform, booking software, insurance, bin contracts, logos, fun scent work challenges … everything was me.
To rub salt in the wound I was paying Kate back for her investment i.e the cost of the fences around the dog park and the car park etc. She asked for large payments every month in addition to rent but I thought the quicker I paid it off, the sooner I could then start to earn a living from my business.
She took nearly every penny of profit from Puptopia and then forced me, and my business off the land. I have put my heart and soul into Puptopia and I am absolutely devastated. I built a successful business from scratch, a happy place for so many dogs, and now have a sinking feeling this outcome for me was planned from the start as Kate expected me to walk away with nothing and leave it all behind and let her just take over my business.
It has been disheartening and upsetting to witness the narrative being shared both publicly, and verbally to my customers at the gate suggesting things weren’t as they actually were. I have dedicated a year of my life to Puptopia, and I am now in the process of negotiating a new location to reopen my business.
Please stay in touch for updates.
Your support means the world to me.
Love Kerry x
As a footnote, I couldn’t have done this without Kate offering me the use of her land to run my business and her financial investment in building the fences, and her time helping build equipment in the space I rented from her but I paid her back around half of the cost of those fences and then she got rid of me. That, is not fair.
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I have turned comments off as sadly I’m receiving a lot of online abuse and inaccurate comments from Kate’s friends and connections who have never even visited the dog park. I have also now had to turn reviews off as she is getting friends to put untrue nasty reviews on, people who have never even visited Puptopia.
Feel free to contact me directly on the number below or via messenger.
I wish to only inform my lovely customers of the factual situation and move on now, find a new plot of land and give all your lovely dogs an even better space to play.
All bookings already made will still go ahead.
Any access issues or problems at the dog park that may occur on your bookings from tomorrow onwards are not my responsibility. Any public posts anywhere except the official Puptopia page or directly from me on 07368 641373 are not my opinions.
