SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— Rockie, an 80-pound Mastiff, has had three surgeries and a lifetime of physical therapy but is still limping. His owner, Stephanie Spears, has done her best; however, she says, “He struggles, and it's really hard for me."
Spears is suing the doctor who performed the original surgery on Rockie’s hip, Zoran Djordjevich, or Dr. George as he likes to be called, and the place where he works, Mohnacky Animal Hospital in Carlsbad.
She claims they ruined her dog’s life with the wrong surgery.
Spears says, in her complaint, it was an "unnecessary surgery by a vet whose claims to be board certified are grossly untrue" and that Dr. George and Mohnacky "were lying about Zoran's credentials. And they did a surgery that my dog was never a candidate for. He should have never had this surgery," Spears says in her lawsuit.
Team 10 interviewed two pet owners who said they ran into the same problem with the same doctor.
Denise Heinrich had a Collie with a limp. Dr. George, she says, recommended surgery.
"After it was over, it didn't seem to make any difference in her. She still had a limp," says Heinrich.
Her complaint is one frequently heard about Mohnacky Animal Hospital. Team 10 reviewed a long list of complaints posted on social media.
Heinrich says Mohnacky pushes "constant surgeries."
"It's always something that is not really handled in any other way but under a knife," she says.
Megan Reuban’s St. Bernard walked fine, but his eyelids wouldn’t close correctly, and he went through so many surgeries, five in his first year and a half of life, that he became constantly aggravated and hostile to other animals.
He eventually turned on Reuban, too.
"He went after me, and he grabbed my arm and shook me and threw me into the wall," she says.
In all, Reuban says she paid $14,000 for his treatments but had to put the dog down because of his constant pain.
"On my dog... he did a surgery that should not have been done. Reuban says.
She wanted to sue, too but ran into the legal roadblock that is California's veterinarian malpractice law.
"We were told we're not going to get the money back. We're going to be in the red further," Reuban says.
An unhappy surprise for Spears, Heinrich, Reuban, and everyone going to the vet: Veterinarians are not subject to personal injury lawsuits, so suing for malpractice is nearly impossible.
Attorney Sarah Thompson specializes in animal law.
"The problem with suing veterinarians is that animals, dogs specifically, in this case, are considered property. And that limits the ability to obtain monetary damages. So, generally speaking, you can obtain costs of a replacement dog if the animal has passed away," Thompson says.
That’s legal speak, for if you adopted a dog, no matter how much you love it, you can only collect damages equal to what you paid for it.
"Generally speaking, damages are quite limited," Thompson says.
And no damages, she says, often means no lawyer.
"That does cause it to be very difficult to sue veterinarians because often people are going to spend more on legal fees than they're going to recover... So most attorneys who handle personal injury cases do it on a contingency basis, but because these particular cases have such low monetary value, a lot of attorneys can't afford to do it," Thompson explains.
Despite this, Stephanie Spears decided to move forward with her lawsuit.
"It was really difficult to find an attorney to even take my case," she says. "I was told multiple times, 'It's not worth it to sue for a dog.'"
Dr. Craig Mohnacky, owner of the hospital, denies all the complaints, says his doctors do not perform any unnecessary surgeries, and Dr. George is not board-certified but a specialist.
As for the lawsuits, he says veterinarians deserve the extra protection in the law.
"It's just the statute that exists. You know, animals are treated as private property...They're not treated as persons. There's no personage associated with it," he says.
Rockie and Spears are attempting to push the envelope when it comes to veterinarian accountability.
Their lawsuit is for tens of thousands of dollars, claiming pain and suffering, punitive damages, and misrepresentation.
Her attorney agrees they are trying to stretch the law.
"What we're hoping to do is make then not just like a car, but make these animals deserving of damages when they're injured, for their pain and suffering," Thompson says.
That would be groundbreaking for every pet owner if successful. For Rockie, it would pay for a lifetime of physical therapy and could eventually end his pain.
READ RELATED: Dog owner sues Mohnacky Animal Hospital veterinarian over board-certified claims
