I dropped Arthas off at Stewartstown Veterinary Services for routine boarding while our family left for our annual vacation. He had received his booster vaccinations there the month before. I signed the boarding paperwork, handed him over, and left. It was the last time I ever saw Arthas alive.
August 12, 2024 · In memory of Arthas
He went in for boarding.
He never came home.
This is Arthas’s story—told through my family’s experience, the records we received, the emergency hospital’s documentation, an independent veterinary review, and nearly two years spent seeking answers.
Meet ArthasRead what happened →
This website distinguishes documented records from personal recollections, questions, and professional opinions. The civil case ended in a disputed settlement without a trial, admission of liability, or judicial finding of negligence or veterinary malpractice.
01 / MEET ARTHAS
Goofy, playful, and deeply loved.
Arthas was our beloved five-year-old French Bulldog. His name came from the World of Warcraft character Arthas. We traveled to New Jersey to meet his breeder, see his parents, and eventually bring him home as a puppy.
He grew up as part of our family and part of the children’s everyday lives. He was social, curious, and always ready to go somewhere. He rode in the car in his booster seat, joined us for ordinary errands and adventures, and made friends wherever his life took him.
He loved going to Rita’s for a pup cup, playing fetch with the kids, and meeting his friends for playdates. He frequently hiked the trails at Mariner Point Park and enjoyed his stays at Best Friends Fur Ever.
His favorite person may have been my cousin Kaylie. Arthas went everywhere with her. She brought him to her house, took him to work, gave him his grooming sessions, and made sure he had plenty of time to play with her dog, Rylee.
Arthas had a full and happy life surrounded by people who adored him. He was funny, affectionate, adventurous, stubborn, trusting, and always included. He was part of our family long before he became the reason for this website.
HIS LIFE IN PICTURES
From puppyhood onward.
The little face, the big personality, and a life filled with adventures and people who loved him.
02 / BOARDING WAS NOT NEW
August 12 was supposed to be routine.
Arthas had been boarded before. He had stayed at Best Friends Fur Ever, stayed with family, and experienced boarding at veterinary facilities. He had gone away from us and come home again.
After we moved, Stewartstown Veterinary Services became Arthas’s veterinary practice. When I left him there on August 12, 2024, it was for what I believed would be another ordinary boarding stay while our family took its annual vacation.
Nothing about that morning prepared me for the fact that Arthas would never come home.
03 / WHAT HAPPENED — AUGUST 12, 2024
What I was told.
What I later learned.
This chronology distinguishes among the clinic’s documentation, the emergency hospital’s documentation, communications made to Arthas’s family, and my family’s account. Times are included only where they appear in the available material.
Family accountCommunicationStewartstown recordMason Dixon record
Stewartstown contacted me and said Arthas “wasn’t adjusting to boarding” and needed to be picked up and taken home. I understood that to mean he was having difficulty with boarding. I was not told that he was in severe respiratory distress, required oxygen, was receiving emergency treatment, or would require intubation. I was not told that he was experiencing a life-threatening respiratory emergency and needed emergency transfer to a hospital.
Because our family was already traveling, I asked a family member to pick Arthas up. As far as I understood, she was going there to bring him home.
The records I later received showed that substantially more was happening while I believed Arthas was simply being picked up. He received oxygen treatment. Radiographs were taken, including chest radiographs documented at 11:22 a.m. His respiratory condition progressed to the point that he was intubated. I did not know about those developments as they occurred.
My family member arrived expecting to pick Arthas up and take him home. Instead, she learned that the situation was much more serious. She was asked to drive to Mason Dixon Animal Emergency Hospital to obtain an oxygen tent, bring it back to Stewartstown, and then participate in getting Arthas to the emergency hospital.
Stewartstown still did not contact me to tell me that Arthas was experiencing a respiratory emergency or that an emergency transfer was being arranged.
After my family member returned with the oxygen tent, Arthas was placed in her vehicle for transport to Mason Dixon. A Stewartstown employee accompanied him. Arthas was intubated when transport began.
I was not present during the transport. According to a subsequent account I received and the records available to me, the Stewartstown employee accompanying Arthas removed his endotracheal tube after he began vomiting or retching.
For approximately two hours, I believed my family member was handling what had begun as a request to pick Arthas up because he wasn’t adjusting to boarding. Then a veterinarian at Mason Dixon called me. That was when I learned how critically ill Arthas actually was.
Mason Dixon’s records describe Arthas as arriving “profoundly cyanotic.” His temperature was 105°F. He was in severe respiratory distress and required emergency intubation in triage.
I was told that Arthas could not adequately breathe on his own, that he needed a ventilator Mason Dixon did not have, that another transfer would be necessary, and that his prognosis was “grim.” I was miles away. Faced with his condition and prognosis, I authorized euthanasia so Arthas would not continue to suffer.
04 / THEN MASON DIXON CALLED
I learned how serious his condition was from miles away.
For approximately two hours, I believed my family member was dealing with what had begun as a request to pick Arthas up because he wasn’t adjusting to boarding. Then I received a telephone call from a veterinarian at Mason Dixon. That was when I learned how critically ill Arthas actually was.
I had left that morning believing I had dropped my healthy dog off for routine boarding. Now an emergency veterinarian was telling me that Arthas could not adequately breathe on his own, that he needed a ventilator the hospital did not have, that another transfer would be necessary, and that his prognosis was grim.
I was miles away from him and being asked to make an end-of-life decision. Based on the condition and prognosis communicated to me, I authorized euthanasia so Arthas would not continue to suffer.
05 / INSTEAD OF BRINGING HIM HOME
A paw print and a clipping of his hair.
When we returned from vacation, my oldest child and I went looking for answers and expecting to deal with what had happened. Stewartstown was closed on what had been Arthas’s scheduled pickup day.
At Mason Dixon, we learned that Arthas had received a communal cremation and that his ashes would not be returned to us.
Instead of bringing Arthas home from boarding, our family came home to a paw print and a clipping of his hair.
06 / SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS
The records left me with more questions.
Mason Dixon provided me with records, including material Stewartstown had sent to the emergency hospital. The initial Stewartstown material I received appeared to contain limited documentation, including two documented oxygen sessions and radiographs.
After I requested Arthas’s complete record, Stewartstown provided additional paperwork containing employee narratives that had not appeared in the initial material I received through Mason Dixon. But I never received what I believed was Arthas’s complete record from Stewartstown. The material Stewartstown provided still did not include the radiographs, boarding agreement, monitoring records, or documented vital signs leading up to and during the emergency. Those omissions were why I did not believe the records were complete.
I cannot independently say when the additional employee narratives were written without an audit history. I can only describe which material I received and when I received it.
“I was trying to understand the final hours of my dog’s life. Every new piece of paper seemed to raise another question.”
07 / WHERE WERE HIS VITAL SIGNS?
What the records I received did not answer.
For a dog whose condition deteriorated into a catastrophic respiratory emergency, I could not find a complete set of documented vital signs and monitoring information in the Stewartstown records I received. That does not prove that something never occurred. It means the records in my possession did not answer questions that mattered deeply to me.
- What was Arthas’s initial oxygen saturation?
- What were his heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature while at Stewartstown?
- How did those values change as his condition progressed?
- What was his response to oxygen?
- What was his condition immediately before and after intubation?
- What did the radiographs show?
- What was his condition immediately before leaving Stewartstown?
- What monitoring occurred during transport?
- What was his condition immediately before the endotracheal tube was removed?
- What happened to his oxygenation and airway status after extubation?
For a dog who suffered a catastrophic respiratory emergency in a matter of hours, these were not minor details to me. They were the information I needed to understand what happened to Arthas.
08 / THE RECORDS I KEPT ASKING FOR
This was not a single request.
I repeatedly sought what I believed should comprise Arthas’s complete record. My questions and requests included the complete contemporaneous medical record, original radiographs or X-rays, monitoring associated with sedation and intubation, the boarding agreement, emergency-transfer documentation, and other records surrounding August 12.
Mason Dixon provided the radiographs it had received, but Stewartstown did not provide the original radiographs directly to me. I sent certified requests for Arthas’s complete records and continued asking. What began as a request for answers became a prolonged effort to understand the final hours of my dog’s life.
Read the available records. Personal and account information has been redacted from these public copies.
09 / MY AUGUST 19 PHONE CONVERSATION
What I remember being told later.
This section is explicitly based on my recollection of a conversation, not a recording or independent transcript.
On August 19, after a family member contacted Stewartstown, I spoke with a Stewartstown veterinarian by telephone. According to my recollection, the veterinarian initially told me that Arthas began experiencing respiratory distress approximately 15 minutes after I dropped him off. I was told oxygen was attempted; Mason Dixon was contacted; Arthas was intubated; my family member was sent to obtain the oxygen tent; and Arthas was then transported.
I was also given the account concerning removal of Arthas’s endotracheal tube during transport after he began vomiting or retching.
I asked why I had only been told that Arthas wasn’t adjusting to boarding and needed to be picked up. My recollection is that the veterinarian responded, “No one told you that.”
But that is exactly what I remembered being told.
10 / NEARLY TWO YEARS
I kept trying to get answers.
I continued seeking records, explanations, and information about how to pursue a claim. I sent certified requests and kept following up. This was not a single inquiry made in the first days after Arthas died. It became a nearly two-year effort.
When I eventually contacted the practice regarding a claim, I was told there was an outstanding balance that I had not previously known about. My account of conversations during this period—including a conversation with the office manager—is based on my recollection. I do not present disputed conversations as independently established facts.
The process left me feeling that informal requests were not going to answer the questions I still had. Eventually, I concluded that I needed to pursue formal action.
11 / INDEPENDENT VETERINARY CASE REVIEW
Seeking veterinary expertise
Independent Veterinary Case Review
An independent veterinarian reviewed the available records concerning Arthas’s care, including the partial records provided by Stewartstown Veterinary Services and the records from Mason Dixon Animal Emergency Hospital.
Read the Independent Veterinary Case ReviewThe report identifies professional concerns involving:
- failure to adapt hospitalization and monitoring to Arthas’s brachycephalic risk;
- delayed and deficient communication with his owner during the emergency;
- lack of documented direct veterinary intervention and vital-sign and clinical monitoring during his deterioration;
- extubation during transport and the resulting loss of airway protection; and
- failure to provide the complete medical record requested by his owner.
These conclusions are the independent veterinarian’s professional opinions. They are not findings made by a court and are not an admission of liability by Stewartstown Veterinary Services.
12 / WHO WAS PROVIDING HIS CARE?
Credentials and supervision became another question.
As I prepared my case, I researched the credentials and Pennsylvania scope-of-practice requirements applicable to the people involved in Arthas’s care. I contacted Pennsylvania licensing authorities for clarification.
This is not presented as a legal conclusion about what any person was or was not permitted to do, and this website does not claim that a scope-of-practice violation occurred. It explains why the identity, credentials, supervision, and permitted role of the people providing care became another part of my effort to understand what happened.
Read 49 Pa. Code § 31.3113 / TRYING TO FIND ACCOUNTABILITY
I had never sued anyone before.
Pennsylvania law’s treatment of companion animals made finding legal help difficult. I contacted the York County Bar Association seeking help with a veterinary-malpractice matter but was unable to obtain the kind of referral or representation I was seeking.
Ultimately, I filed the civil case myself in York County. I spent approximately two months preparing—comparing the Stewartstown and Mason Dixon records, researching Pennsylvania veterinary regulations, investigating credential and scope-of-practice questions, organizing evidence, and preparing to present the case myself.
It was emotionally exhausting. Every part of preparing the case required me to revisit the final hours of Arthas’s life again and again.
14 / THE CIVIL CASE WAS SETTLED
The case ended before trial.
I ultimately chose settlement rather than proceeding with the hearing. The settlement was a compromise of a disputed claim and was not an admission of liability. Resolving the civil case did not answer every question I had about what happened to Arthas.
15 / A SEPARATE LICENSING PROCESS
The civil case and regulatory process are not the same.
I have pursued complaints and concerns through the appropriate Pennsylvania veterinary licensing authorities. That process is separate from the civil lawsuit and settlement.
This website does not claim that the licensing authorities have made findings, disciplined anyone, substantiated my concerns, or reached a final conclusion. My hope is that the regulatory process results in whatever accountability, education, retraining, policy changes, or other response the evidence warrants.
16 / WHY JUSTICE FOR ARTHAS EXISTS
I cannot change what happened. I can document his story.
I cannot change August 12, 2024. I cannot change the phone calls. I cannot go back and ask the questions I did not know I needed to ask that morning. I cannot bring Arthas home.
But I can distinguish the available records from the unanswered questions, and I can encourage other pet owners to advocate for their animals.
Pet owners can:
- Ask questions when something does not make sense.
- Request complete medical records.
- Understand who is providing treatment to their animal.
- Ask what is happening during an emergency.
- Ask about monitoring and transfer arrangements.
- Continue asking when the information received does not answer the questions.
This website is not an indictment of the veterinary profession. Our family has known compassionate veterinary professionals, and veterinary professionals showed us kindness after Arthas died. Many people in veterinary medicine dedicate their lives to caring for animals.
Justice for Arthas is about what happened to one dog, on one day, and one family’s effort to understand it. If Arthas’s story causes another pet owner to ask one more question, request one more record, understand who is treating their animal, or advocate when something feels wrong, then his story can still accomplish something.
IF YOU ARE FACING SOMETHING SIMILAR
You do not have to figure it out alone.
Joey’s Legacy is a nationwide nonprofit supporting people who suspect their pets were harmed by veterinary negligence. Its resources include guidance on obtaining records, victim support, and referrals to vetted veterinary, legal, and mental-health consultants.
Visit Joey’s LegacyThis is an independent resource. Justice for Arthas is not affiliated with Joey’s Legacy.
Pennsylvania veterinary resources
Use these official Pennsylvania resources to verify a veterinary professional’s credential, review the state’s scope-of-practice rules, or file a complaint against a Pennsylvania-licensed professional.
The scope-of-practice link opens Chapter 31 of the official Pennsylvania Code; § 31.31 addresses certified veterinary technicians and veterinary assistants. These resources are provided for general information. This website does not determine whether any person complied with them.
♔
17 / THIS IS HIS LEGACY
For Arthas.
Arthas should have come home from boarding.
Instead, our family came home to a paw print and a clipping of his hair. We will never stop wishing August 12 had ended differently. But we can make sure Arthas is remembered.
He deserved answers.
He deserves to be remembered.
This is Justice for Arthas.