Wrong operation
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The name is Hannibal: a handsome Blue Doberman, 2-years-old.
Haley Plymale bought him to breed puppies to sell and to keep.
"He is our first family pet. We love him to death. He's a good-looking dog. I wanted a little piece of him to keep in the family forever,” said Plymale.
On Tuesday morning, she drove him to the Creekside Animal Hospital in Roanoke Rapids to get his teeth cleaned.
As a COVID-19 precaution, pet owners are not allowed inside:
You drive up and hand over your pet to a staff member.
"About an hour and a half after I dropped him off, the vet herself called me. I could tell she was really upset,” said Plymale.
She says the clinic owner, Dr. Cynthia Elias, told her one of the vet techs had made a mistake: Hannibal had been neutered.
"She said this had never happened to her before. She sounded like she was in tears,” said Plymale.
But how could this have happened?
She thinks the staff may have confused her dog with another Doberman, but she says the outside drop-off was also to blame.
"Because I think had I been able to go inside the office with them and sit in a room, had the vet tech come to me and say, 'oh he's here for a neuter,' I could have said no, you have the wrong dog,” said Plymale.
Staff members told reporters that Dr. Cynthia Elias is the only person who can speak about this and that she was out of town. Judging by the website and Facebook page, this vet has a good reputation.
On its web page, Creekside is described as a "full-service, modern" hospital with a "highly trained staff."
"I spent a lot of time and money into this dog and breeding him is something I really wanted. I mean, it was a goal of mine,” said Plymale.
Now, she wants compensation for what she's lost.
