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An Auckland vet has been charged with theft after allegedly stealing a pet dog from a family near her clinic.
The woman pleaded not guilty in North Shore District Court last week, but fears she will be struck off by the Veterinary Council after official complaints about her behaviour.
"I can see the headlines now: 'Vet on theft charges for trying to find owner of a stray dog'," she said.
The vet said she was only trying to save the dog's owners from a $500 fine from Animal Control officers who were "out of control".
However, the explanation did not wash with Fran Allison, who scoured the neighbourhood with her family looking for family pet Ollie, every night for a week.
"It was a really awful week, horrendous. I am extremely pissed off with her for what she put my family through," Allison said.
Ollie the "foodle" - a cross between a fox terrier and a poodle - went missing the day before Louis Allison's 13th birthday, apparently wandering away from the Allisons' Grey Lynn property after the front gate was left open.
The vet told the Herald on Sunday that a friend had found the dog, recently castrated and scruffy-looking, wandering the streets and brought it to her nearby clinic. She took Ollie to her North Shore home to care for and said she could not reach the owners.
Meanwhile, Allison and her family were frantically searching the streets around their home, posting flyers in the nearby park and placing advertisements in the New Zealand Herald.
Five days after the foodle went missing, Ollie escaped from the vet's house and was sent to the West Auckland pound after a neighbour called animal control officers.
Waitakere Animal Welfare scanned Ollie's microchip but no data came up because the registration was too recent. The vet claimed the dog back a day later and, according to Allison, Ollie would never have come home if not for a stroke of luck.
Allison visited the kennels the same morning Ollie was released and gave his microchip number. "They said, 'we had your dog here last night'," said Allison. "There was no question it was him, the microchip is like a set of fingerprints. If he hadn't been microchipped, we would never be able to prove he was ours."
Animal Welfare then called the vet and asked her to return Ollie. When she allegedly refused, the kennel told Allison to file a complaint with police, who then obtained a search warrant for the vet's home.
The vet heard someone "thumping" on her door but could not immediately answer the door because she was in the bath. By the time she found a robe, the police had smashed the glass on her front door.
Inside, police found Ollie and another missing dog, a beagle called Billy, owned by lawyers who have declined to comment.
The vet has pleaded not guilty to one charge of theft and is due to appear again in court in November.
Fran Allison has complained to the Veterinary Council.
