‘Nanny, they said they can’t fi nd her’
Marine Park woman claims local animal hospital lost beloved dog’s ashes
BY JESSICA PARKS
A Marine Park woman
says she is still searching for
her dog’s ashes after a local
animal hospital handed them
out to a stranger — leaving the
elderly woman devastated.
“I am heartbroken because
I’m not getting anywhere,”
said 80-year-old Fran Moran,
whose 15-year-old bullmastiff
mix, Molly, served as her
son’s companion during a fatal
battle with cancer. “They
don’t call me back. You wait
and wait and wait, and you
don’t even hear from the doctor
who owns the place.”
Moran told Brooklyn Paper
that she brought her beloved
Molly to Animal Hospital of
Brooklyn on March 20 because
she wasn’t eating, and
was told by the doctor that the
canine had a large tumor and
would have to be put down.
On March 26, she said she
received a call from the Flatbush
Avenue animal hospital
saying Molly’s remains were
ready to be picked up. But
when her grandson went in
two days later he was told they
weren’t there.
COURIER L 4 IFE, MAY 22-28, 2020
“He called me from there
and he said ‘Nanny, they said
they can’t fi nd her,’” Moran
recounted.
First, her grandson was
told that another employee
who wasn’t scheduled that
day may have moved the
ashes and to check back the
next day, Moran said.
“They said ‘you have to
come back later because
maybe the receptionist put
her somewhere,” Moran said.
“Ever since then, we went back
every other day checking in,
and they said ‘We can’t fi nd
her, we have no cameras.’”
After about a week of different
excuses, Moran said
animal hospital employees
began claiming that an elderly
man with “salt-and-pepper”
hair had come to pick up
Molly — asking for the dog by
name.
“She said, “I gave it to an
older man and he asked by
name for Molly,’” Moran said.
“She said, ‘He came in and
asked for it, and that’s why I
gave it to him.’”
Moran and her family say
no one they know matches
that description.
Moran said Molly came
to her family as a rescue and
was particularly special to
her son through his cancer
treatment.
“She was his whole life,”
the woman said. “She was so
much to us.”
And despite never having
received her dog’s ashes, Animal
Hospital of Brooklyn has
yet to refund Moran the $600
cost for the cremation. Moran
also says staffers, frustrated
by her frequent calls, have
since accused her family of
trying to scam the animal hospital,
and of knowing the man
who walked away with Molly’s
remains.
But the Moran family —
who reached out to police, but
were told offi cers could not investigate
because it is a civil
matter — say they just want
their beloved canine’s ashes
back.
“I just thought maybe
someone took her by mistake,
anything, because mistakes
happen and I understand
that,” Moran said. “But for
something like this, it’s just
my heart isn’t complete. I just
got to know where she is.”
The animal hospital declined
a request for comment.
A Marine Park family claims the Animal Hospital of Brooklyn lost their dog’s ashes. Google
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