1 out of 5
Yesterday at about 7:00p I received a knock on my door from two children that live on my block. They heard the high pitched squeals of a kitten that was left behind our gardening supplies on our front porch. I immediately took it inside, and started attempting to nurse it with infant kitten formula from a bottle. It was freezing, tiny, and smelled awful, and would not stop mewing.
We called a large number of vets in the area to see if we could bring the kitten in for emergency care. Finally, we contacted Midbrook Animal Hospital, where the receptionist assured me that if I made it by 8p the kitten would be seen and cared for.
We arrived at 7:45 and the receptionist all but ignored us, making us wait in an empty waiting room for 15 minutes with no other patients in the hospital. We finally brought the kitten into the exam room and Dr. Jack Bregman proceeded to squeeze the kitten and force formula down it's throat, all the while saying that it was going to die and supplying a large number of sarcastic comments. He then said that he was going to do nothing, not even help keep it warm (all the while telling us that if we did nothing it would die of hypothermia within hours), and would not give us clear instructions for how to care for it at home. I got visibly angry, and asked if he was interested in saving an animal's life. He said "Listen, you brought this kitten in at 8pm when we close, and I am going home. I have 45 years of experience and there is nothing you can do to stop me." He then kicked me out of his office, called me a nasty b*tch several times, refused payment saying "I don't need your money, go to hell you nasty b*tch," but already had my name and address from paperwork I filled out while waiting (so I could still get charged).
I then decided to bring it to Animal Kind, a vet in Park Slope Brooklyn that has always administered the best of emergency care but is far from where I live and can be very expensive. They IMMEDIATELY took the kitten into their care, took its temperature, surrounding it in hot water bottles and trying to get it warm enough to take fluids and digest them properly.
They came out into the waiting room about half an hour later and informed me that they were not going to give up trying to save him, but that he was so cold and wasn't eating, and that there is a slim chance he will make it. They waived all fees and told me that I did the right thing taking it in and attempting to save it. Unfortunately, the kitten passed away shortly after I left the clinic, and I was thanked for giving him a chance to live. I can't help but think if we had not brought it to Dr. Jack Bregman that it could have lived, based on his gross and illegal negligence of duty.