Vet Accused Of 'Pet-Stealing' Sues Former Employer

BIRMINGHAM, AL - A veterinarian who practiced at the Banfield Pet Hospital in Alabaster is suing her former employer after the company suspended her without pay and allegedly fueled a social media attack against her over an allegation that she stole a stray dog. Birmingham law firm Sirote & Permutt filed the suit this week on behalf of Dr. Nikki Hamilton-Cox.

The suit centers on an incident wherein Hamilton-Cox and her husband, Mark S. Cox, adopted a stray dog that had reportedly been surrendered to the hospital.

The dog's former owner, Elliott “Kurt” Ingram, claimed on social media that Hamilton-Cox stole the dog from him, despite testimony in trial that showed the dog's previous owner and his family allowed the dog to run away at least twice and that Ingram himself had taken the dog in as a stray.

The suit alleges that Banfield acted negligently and also caused Hamilton-Cox’s professional and personal reputation to be severely damaged when Banfield suspended her without pay based upon unfounded allegations of her "stealing" the dog.

Hamilton-Cox's attorneys say that Banfield "clumsily managed social media and website postings about the allegations, helping fuel a social media firestorm attacking and disparaging Dr. Hamilton-Cox."

The suit also seeks damages against Ingram, who, the suit alleges, defamed Hamilton-Cox by falsely signing an application for a criminal arrest warrant for an obscure and rarely-used Alabama misdemeanor statute, “theft of lost property” in Shelby County.

Ingram allegedly accused Hamilton-Cox of being a "dog thief" on a widely viewed Facebook post that continues to be posted on his account.

A judge in a February 5 trial found Hamilton-Cox innocent without her even having to present her case. Testimony at the trial established that Hamilton-Cox "took adequate and reasonable measures in an attempt to ascertain the dog’s owner."

Banfield Pet Hospital, the suit alleges, not only abandoned "a loyal and professional veterinarian who had given the company 19 years of dedicated and unblemished service, it also damaged her reputation by suspending her without pay and removing her name from the list of medical professionals at its Alabaster clinic, while engaging in ham-fisted public relations gambits, including offering money to Ingram, that only served to add fuel to a misogynistic and racially charged social media feeding frenzy that irreparably damaged Dr. Hamilton-Cox’s professional and personal good name and reputation."

The suit could pave the way for similar suits involving social media and how posts to Facebook, Twitter and the like can be subject to libel and defamation laws.

Sirote attorneys Jim Sturdivant, Rushton McClees, and Christian Feldman filed the lawsuit against Banfield Pet Hospital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mars, Incorporated, Global Petcare, Food, and Confectionery.