Mineola resident Frank Zuniga and his wife, Charlotte, were heartbroken. It was bad enough that they had to take Mollie, their rescued beagle/terrier mix to the veterinarian on July 4, but it wasn’t until last week that they found out what happened to her until last week.
It started on Independence Day when Mollie, who the Zunigas adopted in February, started vomiting. Their regular vet was closed for the holiday, and the couple found that the Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center of Westbury would see them.
“They held the dog overnight for observation, and the next day, my wife called them and they said she was stable,” said Zuniga. “But that evening they fed her again and she started vomiting.”
The Zuniga’s visited Mollie on Sunday, July 6. Frank called Mollie “disoriented” and “in bad shape.”
“The vet was suggesting options to us and discussing which way to go,” Zuniga said. “She said ‘At this point, the dog is going to need an operation, and it was going to cost anywhere between $6,000 and $8,000 on top of what we paid already.”
The Zuniga’s decided they couldn’t afford the surgery, and felt “the dog was suffering.” Reluctantly, they decided to euthanize Mollie.
Then, Zuniga said, hospital personnel asked if the couple was interested in relinquishing their rights to Mollie.
“Basically, if we were to sign over the dog to them, they would go ahead with the operation and put the dog up for adoption,” he said.
According to the agreement signed by Charlotte, they “decided to transfer ownership/custodianship of Mollie to Veterinary Referral and Emergency Center in Westbury,” and the hospital “may place the dog/cat as it sees fit in its sole discretion.”
“They surrender all rights to the dog,” said the center’s Referral Coordinator Danielle Wall. “The only time we have someone sign over [a pet] is if there is someone here saying they would take [on the financial responsibility] and the pet.”
In the days after they signed over Mollie, Zuniga said calls to the center were not returned, and they couldn’t find out whether she was well or sick, dead or alive.
“My wife and I didn’t think we would be so devastated, and we’re more so now because we can’t find out anything about the dog,” he said.
Wall said that once the Zunigas signed the agreement, the center wasn’t obligated to release any information about Mollie. She indicated that right transfers are not common, saying only two have occurred at the Westbury facility.
“It’s been an issue at other hospitals,” she said. “Most of the time, we give [pet owners] other options. I’m sure [Zuniga] was offered another low-cost option. We really try not to make [right transfers] known that it’s something we do because people will think we’re like a shelter.”
Despite the center’s good intentions, the Zunigas were left in the dark.
“They weren’t telling us anything,” Zuniga said. “I know we gave up rights to the dog, but we just wanted to know that she’s alright and found a good home or even if she had an operation.”
This past Friday, Wall confirmed to The Westbury Times that Mollie had been adopted by a staff member, and that in the future, Wall said, the center will not be involved in transfers of ownership/custodianship.
