Frankston family stunned as vet clinic loses body of beloved dog
A DEVASTATED family is demanding answers after their beloved dog’s body — which they wanted for cremation — was mysteriously lost by a veterinary clinic.
The Sacco family told the Leader they were dumbfounded that the body of their much-loved labrador retriever, Jasper, could go missing.
Family members took ailing 16-year-old Jasper to be euthanised at the Beach St Veterinary Clinic in Frankston late last year after he became increasingly ill and could no longer walk.
Amedeo Sacco said they had intended to keep Jasper’s ashes in an urn.
“He could not go on; he was in a bad way,” the father-of-two said. “It got to the point it was no good.”
Mr Sacco said family members were initially told by clinic staff there was a delay after Jasper was euthanised before being informed the body had been lost.
“No one can tell us where he is. They don’t know,” an exasperated Mr Sacco said.
His wife, Deanne, said the whole family was still devastated by what had unfolded.
“I don’t understand how you can misplace a 30kg dog,” she said. “It just can’t vanish. I don’t want this to happen to somebody else.”
The clinic’s Dr Euan Kilpatrick did not respond to requests for comment.
But in a statement to the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria seen by the Leader, Dr Kilpatrick described what had occurred as very distressing.
He said it appeared the dog’s body had “presumably become detached” from a bag “during the movement of and removal of bodies from the freezer”.
Dr Kilpatrick said staff were subsequently alerted to a “major problem that they unsuccessfully tried to resolve”.
“Jasper’s body was presumably collected and buried.”
He added a driver who collected the bodies did not recall a “body of Jasper’s description”.
“Since this very unsettling and distressing event our body handling protocol has been reviewed and updated to prevent this happening again,” Dr Kilpatrick wrote in the statement.
Dr Kilpatrick also offered condolences and apologies to the family and refunded the cost of the cremation.
But the family has got a lawyer and lodged a complaint with the Veterinary Practitioners Registration Board of Victoria.
Board general manager Glenice Fox declined to comment.
“In the interests of privacy the board does not release information about complaints that we may have received,” she said.