Be Weary...

Hubby just forwarded me the following story from www.TheStar.com

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Feb 05, 2009 01:58 PM
Robyn Doolittle Staff Reporter

The man who showed up to euthanize Megan McGurk's 15-year-old dog, Jack, arrived with a "tackle box" and did not ask her any questions about the dog's health before the procedure, she testified in a Toronto courtroom today.

Minutes after arriving, the man, who McGurk assumed was a vet, injected the animal in its hip, not the paw, as was the case with the previous pets she had had put down.
After about 10 minutes, the man shaved the dog's back legs and injected it in the paw, she said.

"My dog started whimpering and moaning," testified McGurk, who is an English professor at York University. "My dog was tortured for the last half hour of his life and I paid dearly for that."

McGurk testified against a company accused of practicing veterinary medicine without a license. Pet Heaven, located in North York, dispatches mobile veterinarians to perform euthanasia on dying animals.

The company's owners, Eric and Shelley Blechman, say they have never performed any procedures and are merely a referral service.

But Bernard LeBlanc, who is representing the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, the agency that laid the charges, said the fact that licensed vets were the ones holding the needle is immaterial.

"You don't practice any profession in a vacuum. The reality is the people who are being tried were arranging and providing those services and they were certainly holding themselves out as the people who were providing those services," LeBlanc said.

The couple and Pet Heaven, which also provides cremation, memorial service planning and grief counseling, could be fined up to $100,000 if found guilty.

The charges were laid last year following a complaint made by Margaret Routh, who used the agency when her Jack Russell, Blackjack, was put down in September 2007.
Routh testified her dog was "stabbed" five times in the leg and eventually in the heart before he died.

"This isn't a humane way to die," she said. "It traumatized me. I was crying — a total basket case for two weeks."

Testimony continues this afternoon and tomorrow.
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When I first heard of this type of service from a colleague, I thought it was a really nice idea. You can be with your beloved pet in your home until the very end. My colleague had a lovely experience with a similar service here in Victoria. But, the above article is just a reminder for all of us pet owners to be weary of those that work with our pets - ask to see credentials!