Pet Owners Fear Brooklyn Vet Is Harming Their Animals

KENSINGTON, BROOKLYN — Clayton was a friendly, perky young cat when his owners took him to be spayed at the Pet Haven Animal Hospital. Less than a week later, he died a painful death.

“He went in beautiful and healthy and, four days later, he just died on the table,” said Claire Rust, 43. “We’re absolutely heartbroken — he was the sweetest little cat.”

Rust is one of several Kensington pet owners who say their animals received poor and even harmful treatment at the hands of Pet Haven Animal Hospital veterinarians. They report horror stories of needless amputations, procedures without anesthesia and deaths they believe were caused by the Pet Haven staff’s negligence.

“Something is going on over there,” said Rust. “They’re not being careful.”

But because veterinary malpractice can be difficult to prove and the potential financial reimbursement rarely equals the cost of attorneys' fees, animal law experts say there is little to be done except file complaints with the state and warn fellow pet owners.

Rust adopted Clayton — named for L.A. Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw — when he was about 4 months old from a friend who found him in the barn of her country home, she said.

Rust, her husband and 2-year-old son quickly became besotted with their pet, who was “just the sweetest cat” with “kind of a silly walk,” she said.

Clayton never caused much trouble until he began spraying earlier in March, so the Rusts decided it was time to get him spayed.

Rust had taken her animals to Pet Haven before and wasn’t crazy about Dr. Michael Keschner’s bedside manner, but she decided to take Clayton to him because the procedure was minor and the MacDonald Avenue clinic was near her home, she said.

Pet Haven’s staff cooed over the 8-month-old cat when Rust brought him in the afternoon of March 19, and told her how healthy he looked, Rust said. Dr. Keschner told Rust she could pick the cat up later that afternoon and, when she called, he told her the surgery had gone well.

But when Clayton returned home, her pet started hiding, which wasn’t like him, and about four days later he wedged himself behind the toilet and began meowing in pain, said Rust.

“I said, ‘Don’t worry baby, I’m gonna take care of you,’” Rust recalled. She called the vet and he told her to bring Clayton in.

The family rushed Clayton back to the animal clinic — Rust kept petting him through the mesh of his carrier — and they were stunned when Keschner told them the cat was about to die, she said.

“I was beside myself,” said Rust. “He kept meowing and it was a desperate meow.”

Keschner told the family “the humane thing to do” would be to put Clayton down, but the little cat began throwing up blood and died before the vet could complete the procedure, Rust said.

A grieving Rust took to Facebook to ask her neighbors for advice.

“He was in perfect, playful health before the procedure,” Rust wrote on the Kensington Facebook page Friday. “Has anyone else had issues with this veterinarian clinic?”

The answers stunned her.

Judith Spinner Carpenzano took her dog to Pet Haven after he was hit by a car, she wrote. The wound became gangrenous under her cast and eventually the leg had to be amputated.

Carpenzano wrote, “It was a terrible experiance [sic] for our family."

Barbara Weis took her cat Katchka — who was sick with cancer — to Pet Haven to be put to sleep, she wrote. The vet told Weis the cat didn’t need to be sedated first and she watched him die in pain, she said.

“It was horrible,” she said.

Several phone calls and emails from Patch asking for comment did not get a response from Pet Haven.

Rust and her neighbors' concerns are backed up by half of Pet Haven’s 62 Yelp reviewers, 29 of whom gave the clinic one star and warned fellow pet owners: "DO NOT BRING YOUR PET HERE!"

Twelve Yelpers wrote that vets recommended unnecessary surgeries, amputations and shots pets already had been given, or misdiagnosed urinary tract infections, herniated discs and broken bones.

The owner of a limping greyhound said she was stunned when Dr. Keschner recommended amputation without doing an X-ray first.

"He was unsure about the cause of the pain on the paw, but he was sure that we needed to amputate the dog's digit," wrote Andrea C. "My wife googled the issue, turned out it was a corn that we could cure at home for a few bucks."

Four Yelpers said their pets died after routine procedures such as spaying procedures and dental cleanings at Pet Haven.

Pet Haven vets suggested one cat, who became infected after being spayed, spend the night at Pet Haven, according to Yelper j. g.

"My friend, who loved this cat more than anything, took a little video of her just so that he would have something to watch at night while she was gone," wrote j. g. "While he was doing this, the staff whispered and laughed at him and called him nuts. The cat died overnight."

And four Yelpers noted animals were kept in unsanitary conditions. One reviewer said she saw mice feces in an operating room. Another, interested in adoption, reported that cats had been let loose near an uncovered box of used syringes. Two people who boarded their pets returned to find the animals covered in their own excrement, they said.

"I paid over $1000 for the 'care' he got," wrote Patricia D., who came to pick up her cat after surgery and found him covered in blood and dried urine, and with two nails ripped out. "Please please please do not put a living being that you love through something like this."

But not every Yelper had a negative review for Pet Haven — 17 people gave the Kensington clinic five stars and expressed gratitude toward staff they found to be friendly and helpful.

"I'm surprised by some of the negative reviews posted here," wrote Valerie W. "I find Dr. Keshner to be wonderful ... the staff is great."

Pet Haven Animal Hospital and all veterinary practices in New York State are monitored by the Education Department’s Office of the Professions, which investigates and prosecutes professional misconduct claims such as gross negligence and incompetence.

But because veterinary misconduct is extremely difficult to prove and penalties for lesser offenses are small, veterinary practices in New York State have proven extremely difficult to regulate, according to Richard Rosenthal, an attorney known as “The Dog Lawyer.”

“The real problem is there is very little financial risk for veterinary malpractice,’” Rosenthal said. “If a vet screws up, then he may not get paid and it may cost him a couple hundred dollars, but that’s it.”

And even those inexpensive fines are difficult to procure, said Rosenthal. To prosecute for malpractice, he needs tangible evidence that it was the vet — and not the owner — who made a fatal mistake, he said.

Which means if a client waited a few days before taking a sick cat to the vet (as Rust did), or let him roam outside, it’s impossible to say that the vet alone was responsible for an animal’s death.

"Proving there is a consistent subpar level of care is very hard unless there are numerous official complaints," said Rosenthal. "The laws are woefully inadequate."

Rosenthal also pointed out that many factors can contribute to a once-healthy animal's death.

"You can’t always blame the vet," he said. But also noted that Pet Haven's numerous negative reviews could be a red flag.

"If there are repeated cases, then yes, there very much may be an issue," he said.

Three Yelp reviewers reported their cats got infections — one fatal — after being spayed at Pet Haven.

Rust said she’ll consider reporting Pet Haven, but won’t be hiring an attorney — it's too expensive and her family is still grieving.

Rust's 2-year-old son still doesn’t understand what happened, she said.

“He keeps saying, ‘Where’s my kitty?” Rather than explain what had happened to Clayton, Rust and her husband simply tell their toddler, “He decided to stay at the vet.”

Calls for comment made to the New York State Office of the Professions were not immediately returned.

Photos of Clayton courtesy of Claire Rust.