A Houston man's heartbreak has turned into a quest for answers after his canine companion met a tragic end at a pop-up clinic. Gordon Atkins, as FOX26 Houston documented, described his grief when his dog Spike, alongside Bailey, arrived for low-cost vaccines and within moments ceased to breathe. "I just heard the lady say he's not breathing, and I looked down, and my little dog was on the ground. He was bleeding a little bit and his tongue was sticking out," Atkins said.
The incident happened this past Saturday at a Texavet clinic in a CVS parking lot on Barker Cypress, where Spike's sudden death left Atkins grappling with a torrent of unanswered questions. "The leash is on the ground, what happened," a distraught Atkins asked, in a sentiment obtained by FOX26 Houston. An ensuing promise of a necropsy by Texavet's clinic remains shrouded in silence.
Meanwhile, some 160 miles northwest, in Austin, a debate of another kind rages. Pet owners like Cindy Morabito, who operates a pit bull rescue and believes in "low to no vaccines," are bucking the established protocols, as per an article featured on NPR.
Veterinarian Lori Teller expressed concern to NPR, "The rabies vaccine has been around for decades and it is so incredibly safe, especially when you consider the risk of death."
