Melanie Hines, the 24-year-old daughter of Arlene Fougere and Melvin Hines, received Cooper eight years ago after making her school's honour list.
-by Bill Dunphy
There are some things in life – both good and bad – that you think can never happen. The most unthinkable thing of the worst kind happened to Arlene Fougere last week.
The Meat Cove resident’s family dog, Cooper, who Fougere had taken to the Highland Animal Hospital satellite clinic in Ingonish for treatment for a sore paw on Tuesday of last week, was mistakenly euthanized.
The Highland Animal Hospital, based in Port Hawkesbury, holds satellite clinics in various locations around Cape Breton, including Inverness, Cheticamp, and Ingonish.
Fougere, in a tear-filled interview, said she still can’t stop crying over the loss of Cooper, an eight-year-old Siberian Husky that she and her husband, Melvin Hines, got for their daughter Melanie after she twice made her school’s honour list.
“He was a healthy dog, his stuff is everywhere and I can’t bring myself to touch it,” she said on Monday.
“It shouldn’t have happened. I can’t consider it a mistake or an accident, it’s negligence,” she alleges.
Fougere said she had been treating Cooper’s sore paw for about a year and was in contact with the hospital by email, putting Polysporin on the affected area and bathing it with salt water.
“It would get better, but then he would be licking it and it would get infected again. So, on Tuesday, I thought I would take him to the vet to see if it wasn’t something else.”
After arriving in Ingonish, Fougere said she walked Cooper while waiting outside for the vet. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people and their pets are asked to remain outside to await the vet.
She said she has known the vet’s assistant for years and spoke to her about Cooper’s leg. Fougere was given a form to fill out.
When the doctor came out, Fougere said he told her to put Cooper in the back of the truck and he gave the dog a needle to relax him.
“He said he had been bitten before and didn’t want it to happen again. Cooper fell asleep and the vet came out 15 minutes later with a rubber tube like you see when they want to pop a vein to draw blood. I assumed he was taking blood. The next thing I know Cooper is jerking and there’s blood in his mouth. Then he just stopped breathing.”
Fougere said she started to scream, asking the doctor what had he done. She said he replied, “I’m sorry, I thought you wanted me to put him down.”
According to Fougere, the vet told her there were three dogs there that day to be euthanized and that he had made a mistake, offering to cremate Cooper for free.
She said the veterinary assistant was also present, but didn’t speak up. “She knew Cooper was there for a sore leg, not to be euthanized.”
A woman in the parking lot called the RCMP and Fougere said he was honest in telling the police that he had made a mistake. The RCMP advised her to contact the Nova Scotia Veterinary Medical Association.
Contacted on Monday, Dr. Frank Richardson, the NSVMA registrar, said they have yet to receive a complaint.
“To date, the Nova Scotia Veterinary Medical Association has not received a formal complaint from the pet owner concerning the incident to which you refer in your email. If and when a formal complaint is received, the NSVMA will address it through its Complaints Process. The NSVMA understands your concern and thank you for contacting us.”
Fougere said she gave all her information to her lawyer and that he will be the one who will lodge a complaint to the NSVMA on her behalf.
The Oran also reached out to Dr. Sietse Vanzwol, a proprietor of the Highland Animal Hospital. “Our lawyer has told us no comment and we’re bound by his advice to say nothing at this time.”
Fougere said the Highland Animal Hospital has to be held accountable.
“I don’t care about suing him, but my dog didn’t deserve to die. No amount of money is going to bring him back. I don’t want anybody else to ever go through this. And I’m not going to stop – Cooper deserves much more than that.”
Fougere said she is grateful for all the calls and messages of support she has received, including an offer of another Husky for free from a Nova Scotia breeder.
“I don’t want another dog,” she said, crying. “I just want Cooper back.”
