New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

RE: New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

Edward Jones — Sat, 20 Jan 2018 10:19:19 GMT

Signing a cat over when a client can't afford treatment seems a waste of time to me - you don't get paid and now you've also got a pet to re-home.

I know it's always a difficult situation, but it seems to be the worst of both worlds to me.

RE: New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

bevs2251 — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 22:33:08 GMT

This happens all the time. Now with social media, these cases are more likely to be heard about. If the animal is microchipped and the owner signs over the animal to the vet, then the animal belongs to the vet. Change microchip details immediately, then no legal blow-back. Most vets end up giving the animal back when the media gets a hold of a story like this. Always the vet is the baddie.

Bit like when we'd keep an animal until we'd been paid (last century). After 7 days, no payment and attempts to contact owner fail, the animal is considered abandoned and then belongs to the practice to rehome/euthanase, or become the clinic cat !

RE: New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

vs0u — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 11:27:20 GMT

Seems a little odd - who would try to sell a 3 year old domestic shorthair cat with an abscess and cystitis for £50? Unless perhaps they are trying to put off unscrupulous buyers with a high cost. A bit of a misjudgement there though to put it on facebook

The rest of it sounds like the owner misunderstood/embellished the story to make themselves look better

RE: New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

Jo Dyer — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 10:08:07 GMT

Reading the story I can see it in my mind!

Owner takes cat to vet with abscess and cystitis (the latter in response to the stress of the former). Owner declines treatment (presumably on cost grounds) and requests euthanasia. Caring vet declines euthanasia but writes off fees if owner signs cat over for rehoming.

Receptionist's mother appears to have rehomed the cat but finds it won't settle (it's an anxious cat after all) and tries to rehome again via that most appropriate of marketplaces, Facebook

Original owner sees the post, makes a massive fuss, drags the caring vet practice's reputation through the mud, gets cat back. Where in future, any illness will presumably be ignored and cat will suffer.

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished! I feel really sorry for the practice and hope they are all ok. The behaviour of the receptionist's mother is perhaps slightly questionable, but she probably thought she was doing the right thing by the cat, and is actually nothing to do with the practice anyway.

RE: New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 08:39:42 GMT

The key to this is that for whatever reason they signed the cat over to the vet so it was his property to do what he wanted. I suspect its all sour grapes, if there is even a modicum of truth in this story she probably couldn't afford/refused to pay and the vet had suggested doing a blood profile before lancing the abscess to make sure it was OK and gave her the breakdown of various differentials/outcomes.

RE: New solution to bad debtors: sell the dog on ebay

Julie Innes — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 08:32:47 GMT

OMG, there is definitely more to that one than meets the eye, I would think!

Classic owner "the vet said..."

It's like that cartoon- What we say to dogs....what they hear. What we say to owners....what they hear!