On Tuesday 29th August at approximately 5:30pm I fed Shadow his last meal of the day, and he curled up to go to sleep for the evening. As he has a cat flap he went out at some point during the night. He usually comes home first thing in the morning for his breakfast but id noticed he hadn’t come home by 10am, its not usual sometimes hes sleeping in our shed but hes always home. I got a call on Wednesday 30th August at 12:10pm from Pype Hayes Vets to say that Shadow had been picked up by a local charity that they work with. He was brought in as a stray along with a number of other cats although they wouldn’t advise me any further than that. They informed me that he had been put under anesthesia and shaved, and that they had scanned him at this point and realised that he was microchipped and neutered. They called me to inform me of the above and asked me to come collect him. When I went to collect him, a large section of his upper leg area extending into his stomach area had been shaved, they informed me had been offered food but that he hadn’t eaten much. I am Autistic and as such have difficulty expressing how I feel so whilst I was absolutely furious I didn’t say anything at the time to the vet who handed me Shadow. They ensured me that he had not had any procedures done (however surely being put under anesthesia would count as a procedure in and of itself) and that hes absolutely fine. On Thursday I reached out via email as I had time to think about how I was feeling and I decided that I wanted to raise a complaint with the vets. I had queried why he was not:1 – Scanned by the charity that picked him up, however I did say that the vets cannot be held responsible for that 2 – Why the vets had not scanned him prior to putting him under 3 – How they could not tell Shadow apart from the other stray/feral cats, as hes extremely well groomed, a healthy weight, and a nice shiny coat. He doesn’t have a collar as the little scamp slips them off all the time. The vets response was very poor simply stating “Feral cats cannot be handled which is why they are put under first”. However any vet worth their salt would be able to tell a stray cat from a happily owned cat. Shadow has since stopped eating like he usually does because he gets stressed very easily and hes very reluctant to go outside by himself now. My issue is that they clearly do not have a process to follow. I cannot understand why their first process is to put a cat under anesthesia as opposed to scanning for a chip. Their argument of “Health and safety” is void as the cats can be scanned from 3-8 cm away. Whilst I don’t know the distance for being able to administer drugs id imagine it’s the same distance if not closer. I believe that the vets have acted negligently and as a result caused Shadow and myself considerable distress. As I am Autistic this is now an ongoing issue and im too scared to let shadow out incase he gets picked up again, and hes too scared to go out without me. Their complaints procedure, if any has not been followed to a satisfactory standard.
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