Video shows Orlando vet tech swinging dog into wall

Updated: 6/28/2013 2:51 pm
ORLANDO, Fla. (WFTV) -- WFTV obtained video Thursday of a worker at a local animal hospital caught on camera swinging a dog by a leash and even slamming it into a wall.

WFTV confronted the clinic's owner. He said he stands behind his employee.

The video was captured at the Emergency Pet Hospital of Orlando, on White Road near Good Homes Road.

Channel 9's Renee Stoll talked to the woman in that video handling the dog. She said the same thing as her boss did at the hospital: The video was stolen, posted as revenge, and doesn't show the whole story of what happened.

In the video, vet tech Stefanie Stasse picks up the small dog by the neck using its leash.

Veterinarian Dr. Mohammad Hassan, owner of the emergency pet hospital, said not only did Stasse ask someone to take the video, but it's not what it seems.

"She was actually asked to record the video by the person who was handling the dog because this dog already became very, very aggressive," Hassan said. 

Hassan said the person who posted the video on YouTube omitted several minutes of it showing Stasse trying to help the dog.

"Two people were injured by this dog minutes before that," Stasse said. 

Despite the video being posted Wednesday, Hassan said it's actually from a year and a half ago, before he became the owner of the hospital.

"How do you feel about the way your employee handled that?" asked Stoll.

"I wasn't happy about it overall there," Hassan said. 

Hassan said it's not a common practice to deal with an aggressive dog, but sticks up for his employee.

"Why didn't she handle it one of the ways you mentioned, instead she handled more aggressively?" said Stoll.

"I think eventually it got to that point," Hassan said. 

Hassan said it was an aggressive dog and she had to take extreme measures trying to control it

Hassan said the dog did not have any injuries, but also said all of his information came second-hand from his staff because he wasn't working at the hospital at the time.
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qbunny1 - 6/29/2013 1:43 AM
2 Votes
This woman is NUTS! The owner obviously does not care. I do not care how aggressive an animal is, you never resort to throwing it against the wall. And who cares if it was a year ago, 2 years ago, etc. So that is suppose to excuse this idiot from what she did? Gimme a break. These people are SUPPOSED to be trained to handle these situations. It was not the dogs fault. And if the vet himself thinks it was the dogs fault, then he needs to find a different career because he needs a whole lot of training as well. Yeah, slam the dog against the wall..that will calm him down! Freakin idiot!

Stumpy - 6/28/2013 6:41 PM
2 Votes
This is absolutely sickening. That lady should be charged for animal abuse and pay restitution to the owner of the dog, and be forced to do community service at the animal shelter till she can understand how to properly treat animals. The fact that the animal hospital is sticking by her is even more sickening. That tells me that more people are abusing animals there, so the animal hospital should be forced to be shut down. To be frank, if that was my dog, I would have gone after her and beat her ***!!! An animal hospital is supposed to know how to handle animals of all sorts. This is blatant abuse of this poor dog, which was most likely acting up due to stress. Dogs get stressed out easy when they're away from their owner and in a strange place being handled by unknown people who are doing things to the dog that it simply doesn't understand. In other words, the dog was STRESSED OUT DUE TO THE ENVIRONMENT!!! The proper way to handle the dog would have been to put it in a kennel until it was no longer stressed, or, give the dog a shot that would calm it down. Throwing the dog against the wall is only going to make things worse for the poor animal. I wonder how that fat b**** would feel if every time she was stressed out or pissed off, someone threw her into a wall while squeezing her neck as she did to that poor animal. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. If someone abused one of my animals and I found out about it, there would be hell to pay, as my pets are part of my family and I love them very much.

HarlequinDane - 6/28/2013 5:43 PM
3 Votes
jmo - but the video is exactly what it looks like, an employee slinging a dog against a wall :/ Having worked at various vet offices and in both equine and giant breed dog rescue, I completely understand that animals can react poorly and be difficult/dangerous to handle. However, there should be a reasonable expectation that an animal care professional in an emergency clinic (or any clinic for that matter) is capable of handling various situations without resorting to wall slinging. Most vet clinics have heavy gloves available for cantankerous patients (esp cats), as well as blankets and towels that can be used as a distraction/buffer. The dog could also have been moved to an area to calm down, and also allow the employee to further discuss how to proceed and calm down themselves - being anxious and/or angry rarely helps the situation. And if a pet is being aggressive enough that it might bite an employee (or already has, which any animal care person should understand is a normal potential hazard to the job) - then the staff should contact the owner and reserve the right to refuse treatment. Bottom line, animals can be unpredictable, people can react poorly - any work place should have a plan and ongoing training on all aspects of the job (which can be more than just text from a book).
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