Riverside Veterinary Clinic

Ms. Phillips:We apologize that you thought we were being rude at any point before or during your niece's euthanasia visit with her dog. Euthanizing any animal for any reason is VERY difficult and we do our best to accommodate everyone, making it as seamless and comfortable as possible. In your situation, because your niece's pet had bitten a service worker and put her in the hospital and had several other episodes of biting other people that we were informed of, we did have to make a special protocol and take extra precautions to keep the animal, her owner (your niece) and our staff safe. Our doctor called and spoke to your niece ahead of time and explained that we could not promise to allow her to be with the dog throughout the entire euthanasia if, for some reason, we had to do it behind the scenes for the safety of our staff. The doctor did explain that we would try to do everything we could to allow it. We explained that if the owner would like to look for other clinics that could make that promise ahead of time that would be fine as we were not the ones requiring the dog to be euthanized, we were just offering the service as requested. Your niece said she wanted to come to our clinic even without that promise. We had your niece pay while leaving the dog in the car as we had our staff and other clients in the waiting area and we did not want to put them in any danger, as was explained to your niece ahead of time. Our front staff charged your niece out, discussing after care options with her, all within ear shot of other clients. We then came out into the parking lot and assessed the dog's behavior and for safety reasons asked that a muzzle was put on the dog until she was fully sedated and/or in a room alone with the owner so our staff and other clients/patients were not at risk. Your niece agreed and had no problem doing this (or did not voice her concerns at the time, and neither did you). After this, we sedated the dog with a quick poke outside without issue and then walked your niece and the dog into the room where they sat together, and the muzzle was removed once they were alone in the room. Your niece was then allowed to stay with the dog throughout the entire euthanasia process, which we were happy to be able to allow. The only contact we specifically had with you (as you were sitting in your car the whole time your niece was dealing with our front staff) was when you yelled out the window of your car while our doctor was sedating the dog that the person the dog had bitten and put in the hospital was in the wrong and that this was all her fault. At this time our vet stood up and let you know that that situation was none of our concern and she was just there to help in the matter of putting the dog down, as requested by the owner due to the requirement by the court. Your niece also responded to say, "yes that is personal, nothing to do with your clinic". We were providing a service, as unfortunate as that service is. We did our best to be impartial in a situation where someone was hurt very badly, badly enough to be hospitalized. We deal with a lot of death and a lot of bad circumstances and through all of that we treat everyone with respect. However, occasionally we do have to put our foot down and protect our staff and our community of clients and their pets and unfortunately people do not always like how we have to communicate that at times. We are again so sorry for the loss of your niece's pet.