FL vet threatens to "dispose" family pet if bill not paid and would not make payment arrangements

[Crazy Dave]

Animal Hospital Gets Money, Returns Pet

<snip>

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A First Coast woman has her dog back after it was held by her veterinarian's office because she had not paid her bill

The Ark Animal Hospital returned "Sprite" to Dawn Surrency and her children Saturday morning after she brought a Humane Society credit card to them to pay for the care. The animal hospital refused to accept the credit card. The Humane Society brought over cash to pay for treatment and boarding.

The office refused to let her make payments on her bill because it is not office policy. Then the clinic threatened to "dispose" of her family pet.

She says she also tried to pay with a pet health insurance card, but they did not accept that card. Eventually, the vet bill reached $817 because it charged Surrency for boarding the pet. They also told her that if she didn't pay, the office would send an abandonment letter, and 10 days after that the office would "dispose" of the dog.

See full article at:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=144485

And if you'd like to give the vet a review:
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Ark.Animal.Hospital.904-886-2751

[Jo March]

1. You might want to cross-post this in the Lounge and FL forum

Get locals to write reviews on the vet. It will have more of an impact.

[david13]

2. I had the same thing quite some years ago. They seemed to

think they were like an auto repair shop, that they had a workman's lien on my cat.
I finally had to call the police, so they turned the cat over to me.
dc

[hamsterjill]

3. I think this is horrible!

Most vets that we deal with in our rescue (luckily) will bend over backwards for anyone who is willing to work with them a little (i.e., like payment arrangements) to help a sick pet.

Glad to see the Humane Society intervened. And I sure hope this vet is reported both to the state veterinary board AND to the Better Business Burea.

[hobbit709]

4. I would let everyone in town know about these people.

[glinda]

5. Our cat had to go to an emergency Clinic that has a monopoly in the area. They did that to us

stating that they would not do payments (even with only two of them in 30 days) and needed roughly 75% up front. The remainder when we picked him up or they would have to put him down. The bill was over two thousand dollars because they doubled and tripled the normal costs being an "Emergency Clinic". I think the Nat'l Vet. Assoc. or someone should be investigated. I think that it is unfair to threaten people with killing their pets over payment. Wish their was a law to help people on this.