Dead Dog's Remains Go Missing in Manteca
MANTECA (CBS13) — A Stockton woman says her dead dog's remains are missing. Now, she's looking for answers, saying a Manteca veterinary hospital misplaced the dog's ashes.
"I'm upset that she just got thrown away like trash," said Barbara Larsen. "She was a handful, but I loved her, you know?" Larsen said.
Larsen is still struggling with the loss of her 4-year old German shepherd Jackie. A loss, she told CBS13, was made worse by Central Valley Veterinary Hospital in Manteca. She took the dog there after she died on Sept. 24 and paid $298 for the cremation.
"They said it'd be about four weeks," she said.
But weeks later, when she returned for the dog's ashes, the hospital said they didn't have them.
"She got tossed like a bunch of garbage you know, and the worst of it is that they lie about it!"
Larsen told CBS13 an employee told her the dog had been sent to a third-party cremation company. But when she asked the employee for the paperwork, the hospital couldn't provide it. So Larsen called the cremation company herself: Koefran out of Sacramento.
"They said they don't have the dog!" she explained
Frustrated, she turned to Facebook to voice her concerns. She got sympathy and read criticism of other services provided by the hospital, but nothing to help get back Jackie's remains.
We reached out to the Central Valley Veterinary Hospital and got an email from their attorney, Ameet Singh Birring:
"CVVH did not lose the remains of the pet owner's dog. The pet owner brought in her deceased dog to be cremated. Once CVVH was in possession of the dog, they followed all proper protocol and procedures to prepare the dog to be transferred to a third-party vendor who cremates pets offsite for CVVH. CVVH was recently been informed that the third-party vendor has been unable to locate the dog after it was transferred to them from CVVH's offices. CVVH fully appreciates the role pets play in their owners' lives and the emotions associated with the loss of a beloved pet. CVVH has been working diligently with the third-party vendor to locate the remains of the pet owner's dog and will do everything in their power to remedy this unfortunate situation."
"Not true," Larsen told CBS13.
Larsen, now caring for Jackie's puppy, says she's not hopeful she'll ever get the remains or get the closure she deserves.
"They're gone," she said, with tears in her eyes. "They're not here. They're gone."
The hospital's attorney also said that the hospital had been working with the third-party vendor for nearly 10 years and nothing like this has ever happened before.
