Bark if you’re paying $340K to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit

Valley pet supply shop Bark If You’re Dirty is known for its fresh-baked treats, charitable efforts and cheap grooming prices. But for years, it turned a blind eye to rampant sexual harassment in its two Phoenix-area stores.

Since 2017, according to a lawsuit filed last year by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, several female staffers reported they’d endured repeated sexual harassment from male employees. That harassment included making “sexually charged comments” as well as “nude photos, unwelcome physical touching and sexual propositioning.” In multiple cases, the EEOC said, the company minimized or ignored those reports and retaliated against the women who made them.

On Friday, the EEOC announced a court-enforced settlement in the case that, among other provisions, requires Bark If You’re Dirty to pay $340,000 that will be distributed among several women who used to work for the company. “This case shows that lack of compliance with laws that prohibit employment discrimination can be costly, Phoenix EEOC District Director Melinda Caraballo said in a press release.

However, in an emailed statement to Phoenix New Times, Bark If You’re Dirty co-owner Steve Strauss said the company admits no wrongdoing and agreed to the settlement “in an effort to move forward.” Additionally, Strauss said that while Bark If You’re Dirty “respect(s) their mission” of “protecting employees’ rights,” the company believes that “the process was misused and mishandled.”

Strauss added, “The EEOC intentionally interfered with a small business with prolonged, continuous and costly legal fees, ignored evidence and harassed our staff to create a narrative of an unsafe workplace. This was and is not at all what our company culture represents.”

Opened in 2006, the pet supply store formally known as Wag N’ Wash provides in-store self-serve dog wash services. It also has a retail space stocked with food, toys and treats available for purchase. The locally owned business, which has a Phoenix location and a store in Scottsdale, has been popular among Valley pet owners since it opened in 2006. It has made Phoenix New Times’ Best of Phoenix list several times, winning Best Dog Wash in 2023 and Best Pet Supplies in 2021 and 2019.

In his statement, Strauss said Bark If You’re Dirty has “always been committed to maintaining a fair, inclusive, and respectful workplace for all employees.” However, the EEOC’s complaint described a “hostile work environment” at both locations that company’s higher-ups did little to address. That includes co-owner Rich Strauss, who the EEOC said questioned a female groomer “about her knowledge of taking care of the ‘tip of a male,’ referring to a male’s penis.”

But most of the store’s issues, the EEOC noted, stemmed from the unchecked behavior of two male employees.

‘A living hell’

According to the EEOC, the company’s sexual harassment issues began in 2017. That year, Scottsdale store employee Stephen Kelley began sexually harassing coworker Kelly Nichols. Kelley would touch Nichols’ body, make frequent sexual comments and ask Nichols for sex.

“On about five occasions, Kelley physically grabbed Nichols’ butt without her consent,” the EEOC’s complaint stated. Despite her repeated requests to stop, Kelley continued to tell Nichols that “her jeans made her ass look good” and to “break up with her boyfriend and date him instead.” The EEOC said those interactions would happen daily and sometimes multiple times a shift.

Nichols told her manager about Kelley’s harassment three times, the EEOC added. But management did little to stop the harassment, and Kelley’s behavior became more aggressive. At one point, the agency claimed, Kelley “pinned Nichols between the dog grooming tables threatening that he would make her job a living hell.”

The EEOC said Nichols reported the interaction to her supervisor, Roxanne McAfee but said McAfee only suggested that she, Kelley and Nichols meet together to discuss the situation. Nichols said she did not want to talk about the incident in front of her alleged harasser. McAfee continued to press for a three-way meeting.

In May 2017, Kelly obtained a workplace restraining order against Kelley from Scottsdale City Court “because she did not believe that Bark If You’re Dirty was taking her reports of sexual harassment seriously,” the EEOC said. The agency’s complaint said that Kelley did not dispute the restraining order in court.

When Nichols continued to refuse any meeting in which Kelley would be included, the complaint said, Bark If You’re Dirty terminated her employment.

According to the EEOC, Nichols wasn’t the only female employee harassed by Kelley. (Nor was Kelley the only male who harassed Nichols, the EEOC said. Per the agency’s complaint, Nichols had been the recipient of Rich Strauss’ alleged “tip of the male” comment.) The EEOC claimed that from January 2017 through February 2020, Kelley “made daily sexual remarks … such as asking about (female employees’) sex life and sexual preferences and making sexualized comments about their bodies, propositioning (them) and showing them nude photos.”

To avoid Kelley, the EEOC said, one employee rearranged her work schedule, which meant “sometimes losing appointments or clients.” Additionally, “some female employees were terminated after complaining about Kelley’s sexually harassing behavior.” The EEOC complaint does not say what action, if any, the company took regarding Kelley's behavior.

Threatening employees

Bark If You’re Dirty’s Phoenix location had similar problems.

From 2020 to 2021, the EEOC said, store manager Andrew Gallegos engaged in a series of inappropriate sexual behaviors in the workplace. The agency said he often made degrading comments about female customers and employees, shared crude sexual jokes, asked female employees for sex and touched female employees inappropriately.

Gallegos also entered a romantic relationship with an employee he supervised. When other staffers questioned him about the relationship, he threatened to fire them and told them “that if they reported his actions to management, they would not be believed because management would take his side,” the EEOC said.

The EEOC noted that one employee did report Gallegos’ behavior to Bark If You’re Dirty operations manager Brittany Skahill, who confronted Gallegos about it. Later that same day, according to the EEOC, Gallegos fired the employee who made the complaint. Additionally, two other employees resigned "rather than continue to be subjected to his sexually harassing conduct and management’s inaction to prevent it.”

According to the EEOC, Gallegos’ inappropriate behavior was very much on the company’s radar. The agency remarked that Gallegos “received several warnings and poor performance reviews for inappropriate behavior,” including “talking about non-work related topics” and asking employees “to give him rides home.”

In April 2021, the EEOC said, Skahill received a sexual harassment complaint against Gallegos and referred it to the company’s human resources vendor, Work Shield, for review. Additionally, Skahill told Work Shield that store cameras “captured Gallegos threatening employees with termination should they interfere with his relationship.”

After an investigation, Work Shield recommended firing Gallegos “for sexually harassing female employees and dating female subordinate employees.” A day later, Bark If You’re Dirty terminated Gallegos’ employment.

However, the EEOC said the company did not cite Gallegos’ harassing behavior as the reason for his dismissal. Instead, the agency said, Gallegos was fired for “performance-based job-related issues, such as his email response time and his failure to consistently wear his name tag.”

Moving forward

As part of the company’s settlement agreement, Bark If You’re Dirty agreed to update its sexual harassment policies and conduct sexual harassment training for employees and managers. Additionally, the company agreed to never rehire Kelley or Gallegos.

The provisions of the settlement will be enforced by a federal judge for three years.

Neither Kelley nor Gallegos could be reached for comment. New Times also could not contact Nichols, who made the complaint against Kelley, or McAfee and Skahill, the two supervisors named in the EEOC suit.

The EEOC will distribute the $340,000 settlement between Nichols and other female employees who experienced harassment while working at Bark If You’re Dirty. By agreeing to the settlement, the women relinquish all legal claims against the company.

For its part, the company agreed to the settlement amount while admitting no liability.

“We believe that focusing on our core mission of providing quality service and support to our community is paramount,” Steve Strauss said in his statement, “and this settlement allows us to do so without the distraction of ongoing legal matters.”