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This is a much more serious issue than it might appear to be.

Pet owner’s need to be made aware whether or not staff is present at night if they are leaving their pets overnight at an animal hospital.

My concern is related to our kitten Molly.

When we moved in 2004, we started going to a new vet in our new town.  In 2004, we signed a disclosure that no one was on duty at night in the hospital to monitor our pets.  We were never given a copy of this disclosure.

In 2010 (six years later) we left Molly overnight at the animal hospital following her routine spay.  We had asked if we could bring her home on the same day and the vet said no that she needed to stay so that “they could keep an eye on her.”  To any rational person, this leads you to believe that someone is there to keep an eye on her.

But NO that was not the case.  Molly’s surgery ended at 11:45 AM.  At 2:30 PM, we were told that she was waking up well.  At 4:40 PM the vet writes in Molly’s record that Molly is “non responsive in her cage.”  The vet fails to notify us as the pet owners that Molly’s condition had changed.  The vet knew the hospital closed at 5 PM and that no one would be there to “keep an eye on Molly”. The vet failed to give us the opportunity to transfer Molly to an overnight hospital where there would be some one present to keep an eye on Molly.  When staff arrived in the morning, Molly was dead.  The Board of Veterinary Medicine thinks that the vets were practicing an acceptable standard of care when they left an unresponsive kitten all alone in the dark to die.  When the vet knew no one would be watching Molly.  This is acceptable care in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  This is why it is imperative that pet owners know that their beloved pets are not being watched when they leave the pet overnight with the vets.

This petition only asks that vets are honest with their clients and post in prominent places that no one is on site to monitor the animals that are left over night.

If we had known that the vets were no going to keep “an eye on Molly” we would have asked, WHY IS MOLLY BETTER OFF HERE ALL ALONE, RATHER THAN AT HOME WHERE WE CAN WATCH HER?

The animal hospital certainly charges clients when pets are left overnight without any care being given to them. 

This petition only requests that clients are told the truth and so that they can make a truly informed decision when they decide to leave their pets overnight. I can think of no reasonable reason to not require vets to post such notices. Except if the vets were required to post a notice, it would not be possible to tell the pet owners that the pet has to stay overnight so that they can keep an eye on the pet.

Feel free to contact me at mollymittens7@gmail.com

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