staten island advance.

pet-lovers' nightmare: pups burn to death.
a visit to the vet leaves 3 newborn boxers dead, others in pain, from heating pad accident.
11.19.2003

On Monday afternoon, John and Felicia Marchisotto of Annadale packed their 12 newborn boxer pups into a heated basket and brought them to the Staten Island Animal Hospital for a standard tail-docking and dewclaw removal. They expected them back within an hour.

Ninety minutes later, Dr. Irwin Ruderman emerged with a dead puppy. Marchisotto said its stomach was charred.

"The dog was actually burnt. It was horrible . . . (Ruderman) said, 'Somebody put the dial (on the basket's heating pad) on high,' " said Marchisotto. "You never put the dial on high!"

The pad was insulated by a pillowcase and two towels, but the veterinarian said the animal's body temperature had reached 110 degrees, 25 degrees higher than normal for such young pups. He then returned to tend to the three other dogs that were in distress - by running cold water over them. "From burning to death to being put under cold water; that's shock," said Mrs. Marchisotto.

Since then, two more puppies have died and one is still struggling and crying.

At the hospital in Willowbrook yesterday, Dr. Ruderman would only say "It's all under investigation." But according to a published report, Dr. Ruderman said no one from his staff had changed the setting.

"Mr. Marchisotto said to plug in the heating pad and leave it alone. That's what we did ... We don't even use heating pads in the hospital because you have to be so careful," the Daily News reported.

The puppy who died first, the Marchisottos said, had not had her tail cut, leading the couple to believe the pups had been lying in their basket untouched the whole time.

Yet the vet told the couple that he had been with the pups the entire time and that they didn't make a sound.

"If you're in the room with those dogs, and they're basically cooking," said Marchisotto, looking sickened, "you'd hear them screaming."

Dr. Ruderman claims he had done a number of the puppies, as requested, but then realized one wasn't breathing, and a number of the others were "very, very hot." He said he and his staff treated the injured pups and then sent them home. "They seemed fine," Dr. Ruderman reportedly said. "We thought they would do best with their mom, so we sent them home."

The Marchisottos spent all of Monday night nursing the puppies, who were whining and screeching. So young that their eyes and ears have not yet opened, some refused to suckle, they said, burping up whatever fluids they had ingested. The dogs' mother, Bianca, licked them frantically, according to the couple.

One of the pups, a female who is larger than almost all the others, cried all night long.

"That dog was going crazy, it was just crying like crazy," Marchisotto said. She died yesterday morning.

Last night, the dogs were quieter, sleeping on top of each other and under their mother, who hunkered around them looking menacingly protective.

One pup, who Marchisotto suspects is the last to have cold water run over him, squealed when his tender underside was touched, then folded himself up like a clam.

Several of the pups' bellies are wrinkled and red, and show pin-sized blisters.

The Marchisottos have a 7-month-old baby and four adult boxers; the dogs, they say, sleep in their bed, steal all the sheets and basically run the house. They do not breed for the money alone, they said.

"The joy we get out of it . . . the dogs bring such joy to people's lives," Marchisotto said.

This was his second litter; since 12 pups is too many for Bianca to nurse, he was feeding some with a special goat's milk formula.

"We kept on top of the 12 dogs," Marchisotto said. "They were all healthy, they were all nursing."

Laurie Perla of the Staten Island Council for Animal Welfare says she has heard concerns from the community about the animal hospital before.

"It's very shocking, and very sad," she said.

The Marchisottos have no plans to file suit or seek any damages. They say they're just in shock.

"Something like this should never happen," Marchisotto said. "There's no excuse for it. To me there's absolutely no excuse in the world."