I am writing this letter to inform you of my experience with St. Francis Emergency Animal hospital in Hollywood, Florida. We took our beloved Nina on Thursday, January 14, 2016 to St. Francis Emergency Animal Hospital; she needed an Inguinal Hernia surgery. The doctor on staff looked at her and explained how he will perform the surgery and made it seem as if it was something he could do with no problem. He then left the room to write down the quote, 15 minutes has past and the front desk representative came with the quote. The total was $1,698.00 of $1,415.00 for the surgery and $283.00 (20%) for if anything unexpected happens during surgery. Since they don’t offer any type of payment arrangement, we left to see where we could come up with the money. My brother in law had a $1,200.00 Care Credit card he kindly agreed to lend to us. He called the hospital and proceeded with the surgery arrangement and was told to bring Nina at 7:00 PM. At the hospital they told us that she will have the surgery sometime in the middle of the night and that they will call us before and after the surgery to keep us updated. We beseeched for a discount on the remaining balance of $215.00 but we were unsuccessful. Nina was left at the hospital for surgery with a deposit charged to Care Credit of $900.00 and we were informed that the remainder balance was due at the time we pick Nina up. At 7:05 AM the hospital called my mother; my mother requested to speak with someone in Spanish because she did not understand what was being said to her. A Spanish representative came on the phone and stated that the Doctor had Nina opened in surgery and that there was more damage then they expected, or as they said “they see more damage”. She explained that if he proceeds with the surgery it would be more money. My mother asked how much more and she said double the amount around $4,000.00 to $5,000.00, plus $200.00 a day for Nina to stay at the hospital after surgery; which would be about a week and maybe longer depending on recovery. She continued and asked if he should proceed with the surgery or stop and put her to sleep. My mother begged and asked for a payment arrangement for the new balance being requested and the representative carelessly said “no, you will have to pay in full when you pick her up”. My mother continued to worry going back and forth with the representative trying to get some type of last minute payment arrangement. Again, the representative bluntly and repeatedly asked the same disturbing question, “should I tell the doctor to continue the surgery or should he stop and put her to sleep?” After an unsuccessful attempt to get a payment arrangement, my mother told her that she didn’t want to say to stop the surgery but that she couldn’t tell her to continue because she couldn’t have all that money that soon. My mother then told the representative that she would call me (her daughter) and see what we can do. At 7:13 AM my mother called me crying hysterically and explaining the situation to me. Around 7:45 AM I called the hospital and a representative told me that they spoke to my bother in law and that he said that the family have made the decision to euthanized Nina. I didn’t understand what euthanized meant and she explained that it meant they had put her to sleep due to the fact that we did not have the money to continue with the surgery. I asked her what would be our next step, and if we had to pay for the entire surgery, etc. She replied stating that she was unsure the doctor was writing the estimate as we spoke and that I should call back later for the answer. My family then called in the afternoon for the answer, which to our disbelief was that were to pay for the whole surgery. We tried to negotiate over the phone to at least just be charged what they had already charged, $900.00 as a deposit. They then said no that if we didn’t pay the full amount they would not release Nina’s body to us. My mother, my father, my sister and my brother in law decided to go in person to the hospital thinking that it will be better to understand each other in this uncomfortable situation, and there they stated that they had completed the surgery before we gave an answer to the question of paying double or putting her to sleep. Since they had already, without our consent, completed the surgery we had to pay the full amount of $1,415.00. After all has been said and done, we were charged a total of $ 1,200.00, which included our $900.00 deposit; finally they were kind enough to give us Nina’s body with an outstanding balance of $215.00. This is an unforgivable act, extremely inhuman, with a very unprofessional ethics, lack of compassion to what they claim to love “animals”. On their website, http://www.stfrancisemergency.com/, the first thing you see is: Welcome Our staff loves animals so much, they made a career out of it. When your pet is in our care, they’ll be treated with all the care and affection that you’d give them yourself. We have years of experience dealing with small and exotic. We have committed ourselves to providing your pet with the best care. We’ll give your furry, scaly or feathered family member personalized service that’s tailored to their specific needs. Call us today to arrange an appointment or come down and see what we have to offer. This is a perfect example of what they will NOT do for your pet. For God’s sake, they have a poor animal anaesthetized, cut open and they rather let the animal die, not because they can’t save her life, which is what they went to school for in the first place, but instead they let a poor animal die only because the owners did not have the money right away to pay for the surgery. It’s in the Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics, is the 1st main principal: A veterinarian shall be dedicated to providing competent veterinary medical care, with compassion and respect for animal welfare and human health. Why not save the life of an in defensive animal and then do whatever necessary to collect full payment, knowing that the owners are doing everything they can to save her life, because Nina was NOT just a dog for our family. Nina was a family member! We never said that we wouldn’t pay for the surgery just that we needed time to pay. We also were never told what more “stuff” the doctor saw that was wrong with our beloved Nina. I am writing this letter to you because I don’t want this to happen to someone else’s pet. People don’t go to the vet and schedule an appointment for an expensive surgery to save just anyone. Pets are way more than just pets, they are our family members and we, including others, treat them as if they are human. That was my mother and father’s baby, their child. Nina went everywhere with them. They never left her behind. Her death was so sudden and unexpected. We tried doing everything possible. Payment was never the issue; it was more of the timing and arrangement of how money was requested. St. Francis Emergency Animal Hospital and staff cared more about the money than the animal’s life. If this were a human child’s life, you wouldn’t call the parents and asked a cruel question of if you would pay double or let your child die.