I am driving on the interstate and I get into a bad accident. I am cut up pretty bad and have some broken bones. My dog is also in the car and he’s not doing too well either. The ambulance comes and takes me to the ER. What do they do with my dog? Take him to an emergency vet? Let him die on the scene?
I really doubt there’s a general answer. As one anecdote, this dog was taken to a vet in a fire truck, but that was in an urban area where there was a vet nearby, and where the fire department had the resources to do that.
Who payed the vet bills?
Many years ago my dog fell off the 6th floor of my tenement building in NYC into the (illegally blocked) airshaft between buildings.**
My firehouse was immediately around the corner. I ran there like a maniac, and they donned suits, sirened up the truck–all of which is required by law for any matter conducted officially-- and drove around the corner.
Once they got in the building the broke through the door of someone’s apartment on the ground floor. Like a schmuck I asked in a low voice “isn’t this illegal”? He turned to me and, in a glaring intense answer, said shut the fuck up."
They carried my dog out on one of those neck-safety stretchers, leaving a thin trail of blood on that person’s carpet.
At every fire signal/event police show up automatically. I asked one the cops, once he saw what was going on, to take us to a (world-renowned) animal hospital about a mile away. Not only did they take us, but they put on the siren and flashed the lights and cut through all the red lights. They also radioed the emergency room of the hospital to meet us in front of the gates with a table and trauma prep.
They have to do something with the dog. If not, wouldn’t they be risking the dog escaping onto the freeway and causing an accident?
[continued due to edit time out]
Epilogue. The dog lived, chock-a-block with metal rods in his ln his limbs.
I hired a company to clean her rugs. I bought her a new door.
A fireman told me that, unlike the police, they do not need to get or provide warrants to enter private property if in their judgment, an emergency is occurring.
I was lucky I lived so close to the hospital, indeed of such a capable one.
It helps to be on a first-name basis with the firemen around the corner.
It helps to be living in a lily-white, very rich zip codes (my building was one of the last pre-War flea bags they wanted to tear down) in the city. I doubt a Black shot in Harlem would ever get such response.
I realise this is not much help to you, since you’re obviously in America, but in the UK, the police are legally responsible for any animal involved in an accident, unless the owner is present and able to deal with the situation. The police may call a vet out or transport the animal to the vet, or have the RSPCA/SSPCA deal with it. They will also be held responsible for the bill if the owner can’t be found - which is a good incentive for them to try to contact the owner.
It’s a potentially tricky legal situation for the vet. Without the owner’s consent we shouldn’t do much more than immediate life saving treatment or euthanasia (if delaying it would cause unnecessary suffering), but the police and RSPCA/SSPCA can also authorise treatment. The owner might argue that they would have made different treatment choices, might try to get out of paying, might have preferred to use a different vet, etc.
In reality, these things aren’t usually very complicated and common sense overrides legal responsibilities. It’s fairly safe to assume the owner would want the animal’s life saved if at all possible, and vets would hold off on expensive decisions like orthopedic surgery until the owner or their next of kin can be consulted. People are usually very keen to help, and often an animal will be brought in by a stranger, who will often try to help find the owner, sometimes offer to pay the bill or adopt the animal, and usually phone or come back for updates on the animal’s condition. There have been occasions where my clinic has been left footing the bill for an unclaimed injured animal, but this is rare. The bigger problem there is when the owner tells us to do “anything” to save the animal, regardless of cost, and later decides that they really couldn’t afford “anything”.
Earlier this year, in Louisiana, a veterinarian was killed in a traffic accident when he was driving and transferring some of the animal patients from one clinic to its sister clinic down the road.
The pets who survived, many who had just come out of surgery themselves, were rescued and taken back to the clinics.
My Wife used to work animal control. She would be called in in such a case and an emergency vet was on call 24/7. All situations are different of course.
She would also get called out on DUI’s when the person was arrested on the spot. She would just take the animal to the shelter untill the person posted bail (or whatever). On time it was a three foot iguana.
My wife (working for Animal Control again) once had a Suburban break down while transporting about 15 animals. This was pre cell phones and her radio was out so she walked to a pay phone. Only to look back and see flames coming out of the engine compartment.
She ran back and was able to rescue all the animals before the whole truck went up in flames. Made the local paper it did.
I do believe this qualifies as a bad day at work.