Unlicensed Animal Hospital That Offers Boarding Killed Our Dog. What Should I Do?

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

On September 4th, my mother left our 3 dogs at an animal hospital that offered boarding overnight. The 3 dogs included a Shih Tzu, Toy poodle and a German shepherd.

On September 8th, my mother tried to pick up our 3 dogs. The worker only gave her the German shepherd back. When the worker went back to get the other 2 small dogs, my mom heard a commotion in the back as if something happened.

The worker came back all worried and said that the Shih Tzu was injured by our toy poodle and that they had to stay for treatment. The worker stated that they put them in the same cage.

The worker asked my mom why she never told her to not put them in the same cage together. She never asked my mom and this wasn’t our first time leaving our dogs here.

The worker told my mother to come back later for the toy poodle and the Shih Tzu. When my mom came back, she saw that they gave the toy poodle a bath and that the Shih Tzu had injuries on his ear and four large bite marks in his back area.

They treated the Shih Tzu with medicine and said that the toy poodle supposedly had blood in her mouth from attacking him.

They charged my mother for boarding, medicine and treatment. Around $400 in total.

When my mother went home, the Shih Tzu did not eat and barely drink water. He was crying all night and died the next morning 9/9.

We went to the police with receipts and photos, they said they couldn’t do anything. We went to the vet and they said that they believe a large dog attacked the Shih Tzu and that the toy poodle couldn’t have done this.

We left the Shih Tzu’s body at another vet for a necropsy to determine how he died. It will take 2-3 weeks. The necropsy is $680 and the other vet fees are $200.

In conclusion, we believe that a big dog attacked our Shih Tzu and the staff tried to blame it on our toy poodle. They have never fought in our house or in the past boarding places. We also believe they are trying to blame my mother for not telling them to put them in different cages when they never asked us.

What should we do? We are in grief right now. Our Shih Tzu was 14 years old. We miss him so much.