A Vet Technician Has Been Charged with Animal Cruelty for Keeping a Dog After Owner Was Told it Was Euthanized

A vet technician has been charged with animal cruelty for keeping a dog after owner was told it was euthanized.

Andrea Oliveira, from Freehold, New Jersey, is accused of taking an elderly dog from vet Dr George Menez and keeping it alive for five months.

Dr Menez, who hasn’t been charged with a criminal offence, is alleged to have told owner Keri Levy that he euthanised her miniature pinscher Caesar at Briarwood Veterinary Hospital in May.

It was reported that the vets believed the dog could be nursed back to health.

Ms Levy said her 15-year-old dog was suffering from Cushing’s disease, a condition which affects elderly dogs.

She claims Dr Menez telephoned her to say Caesar was ‘at peace’, hours after she said goodbye to her pet.

However, she received an anonymous message earlier this month from someone who said her dog was still alive and being looked after by an employee at the vet practice.

Police said Oliveira did not believe the dog needed to be put down and thought she could nurse it back to health.

Caesar has since been put down under the supervision of a different vet.

The health of the animal before its death is now a matter of dispute.

Police said the dog was given back to its owner in good spirits and showed no signs of ill-health, but Ms Levy said his condition had deteriorated.

Police said Dr Menez allowed Oliveira to take the dog home with her but didn’t inform the owner.

‘This employee wanted to do so out of compassion for the dog and a desire to rehabilitate his health, albeit without the owner’s consent,’ Howell Police Detective Sergeant Christian Antunez told the Mail Online.

After receiving the anonymous message that Caesar was still alive, Ms Levy contacted the practice but both Dr Menez and Oliveira had stopped working there.

Ms Levy claims she then contacted Dr Menez and he gave her the name of the former colleague who had taken her dog.

His owner said the dog’s health had deteriorated dramatically in the five months and she took him to be put down at a different hospital.

You can read the initial story here: Family Dog Was Supposed to Cremated: Found Alive At Veterinary Worker’s Home

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Meet Lynea Lattanzio, She Lives With 1,000 Cats

You’re about to meet an amazing woman who gave up her spacious home, complete with a pool and a view, just to care for her beloved cats.

Lynea Lattanzio, 68, now lives in a small mobile home so she can better care for more than 1,000 felines.

Over the course of her life, Lynea says she has taken in and lived with 28,000 cats!

The self-proclaimed “ultimate crazy cat lady” loves their beauty, independence, and grace. Out of her own pocket, she began adopting and re-homing cats in the early ’90s. Once she became a vet technician, she was able to grow her mission and find the funds needed for food, litter, maintenance, staffing, and vets.

Lynea’s trailer is situated on her six-acre property in California, known as Cat House on the Kings. It’s the state’s largest no-cage, no-kill sanctuary for feral and abandoned cats. She and her team of volunteers care for about 800 adult cats and 300 kittens.

In the video below, courtesy of Barcroft TV, you’ll get a glimpse into the incredible Cat House, where feisty felines roam freely throughout a five-bedroom house.

I guarantee that you’ve never seen anything like this before.

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Meet Piglet, The Adorable Cleft-Lip Kitty

The first thing you notice about Piglet is her nose. This dinky white kitty with black-and-gray accents suffers from a cleft lip, which gives her a certain resemblance to the A. A. Milne character of the same name.

She’s also experienced a turbulent start to life, but now this kitty is blooming into a champion for special needs cats.

Also, Snoop Dogg has Piglet’s back.

I’ll explain more on that one later, but for now let’s get to Piglet’s tale.

Piglet was originally part of a litter that was orphaned at just a few days old. Thankfully, two veterinary technicians stepped in and bottle-raised Piglet and her pals.

“She was a lot of work as a baby,” says a friend of the vet technicians, who’d shortly become become Piglet’s mom after becoming smitten with a picture of her. “Although she didn’t have many complications from her cleft, her litter was not very healthy.”

Recounting her first meeting with Piglet, her mom says, “She was mostly nose! Her eyes were closed, and her ears hadn’t stood up yet. The first time I met her in person was when she was about 1 and a half weeks old, and I immediately fell in love with her. She loved being held, and I thought her nose was extremely cute!”

While Piglet’s personality shone through from the start — and her mom describes her as “very social and loving” but also “adventurous and brave” — her cleft lip situation was cause to be cautious.

“So far there have not been any complications due to her cleft lip,” explains her mom. “We are lucky that her palate is 100 percent intact, and, despite having a unique nose, her breathing is completely normal.”

She adds that Piglet’s lower jaw is technically shorter than her top jaw, and that the disparity might cause some future dental issues, but for now it’s a case of “waiting to see how things develop as she grows.”

Helping Piglet’s cause is the fact that her mom is also a vet tech at a speciality and emergency hospital — so this little darling is going to be constantly surrounded by veterinary experts all keeping a close eye on her development.

Along with the interest of the local veterinary community, Piglet is also growing up in the public eye thanks to her burgeoning Instagram account.  With her social media profile blooming, she’s all about showing the world that “a physical difference is not a disability — cats with physical differences are unique and beautiful in their own way,” her mom says. “Just look at Piglet’s account and see how many people have embraced her unique look and love her little lip and nose!”

Along with her online following, Piglet has also picked up a fan by the name of Snoop Dogg — although in this case it’s not the rapper (who, incidentally, owns cats), but another feline living in her forever home.

“The majority of their interactions include Piglet play-attacking Snoop Dogg and stalking his tail,” says her mom. “Luckily, Snoop is very tolerant and just stands there and allows her to do it. Their relationship is like that of an older brother taking care of his little sister.”

Head over to Piglet’s Instagram account to follow her story.

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