Dog Owner Says Paid Surgery Bill Isn't Enough After Pet Breaks Its Leg At Day Care

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EMSWORTH (KDKA) -- A dog comes home from a doggy day care with a broken leg, and no one can explain what happened.

The owner of the day care paid the surgery bill, but the dog's owner says that's not enough.

Mojo is two years old and his owner, Diana Fernandez, says she has had him since he was a pup.

You can't tell it by the way he walks now, but his leg was broken in two places.

"I had to stop everything for him and just 24/7 care [for him]," Fernandez said.

Fernandez says Mojo was at the Dog Stop in Emsworth to board while she was out of town. She acknowledges Mojo has some anxiety and when the staff contacted her, she suggested putting him in a room all by himself.

"They said he was anxious and that they think that he scratched at the door because there were marks and a hole," Fernandez said.

But this, says Fernandez, was the end result -- Mojo's leg broken in two places and no explanation how.

Mojo needed surgery, and the Dog Stop paid the bill in excess of $5,000.

Now, Fernandez says, there's still the cost of physical therapy.

"He went in with four good legs, he was in a room by himself, and he came out with a broken leg and three good legs," Fernandez said.

The owners at the Dog Stop in Emsworth tell a different story altogether and they say not so fast. In fact, the owner told KDKA's Lynne Hayes-Freeland they believe they've gone above and beyond to try and help Mojo.

"The dog came and was here for a few hours and it injured itself," Dog Stop owner Jen Ferris-Glick said. "We did what we would normally do. We called the owner."

The Dog Stop says Fernandez also signed a release stating she would be responsible for any bills if something happened while the dog was being housed there.

"We went beyond our policy and paid for this entire surgery because I felt that if we didn't, the dog was probably not going to receive the care it needed," Ferris-Glick said.

The Dog Stop says it drew the line at the physical therapy bills because it was not required by the vet.

"If it was required, we would have totally paid for it, but since it was just recommended," Ferris-Glick said.

"It was silly to me that they said that," Fernandez said.