Seaford Woman Changes Veterinarian Law For Prescribing Drugs

SEAFORD, NY — One woman channeled the pain of losing her beloved Yellow Labrador into a mission to save pets.

It's a decade since Mary Kate Tischler, of Seaford, faced the death of her 3-year-old dog Buoy.

Tischler's pet died from toxicity due to a drug he was prescribed as a painkiller after knee surgery. However, unlike humans, veterinarians in the state had no obligation to alert owners to dangerous side effects.

The vet simply told Tischler to give it to her dog with food.

However, Buoy got sick from the medicine. Doctors confirmed the dog's kidneys were failing. The only option was a specialty hospital in Manhattan for dialysis. Buoy faced six weeks of dialysis to clear the toxicity from his body.

Unfortunately, with no kidney function improvement, Tischler had to put him to sleep.

"It was devastating for my family," Tischler told Patch.

While Buoy was having outpatient treatments, Tischler, a lawyer, researched and prepared a malpractice complaint against the surgeon and hospital that performed the surgery.

That was only the start of Tischler's fight for change.

"People needed to become aware of the problem we had encountered," she said.

Her lawyer, Andrew Siben, reached out to then-state Senator Phil Boyle, who suggested introducing a bill named "Buoy's Law."

After numerous hurdles, that bill is now law, signed last month by Gov. Hochul. It will take effect in the coming months.

The bill faced opposition from the New York Veterinary Medical Society until the language was altered.

"When I first started pursuing this, people were astonished that it wasn't already a law," Tischler said. "It's total common sense."

In order to make it happen, Tischler had many meetings with Albany lawmakers. Her passion for Buoy's Law became even stronger after losing her husband in the intervening years.

"We just really didn't want any other family to have to go through the same traumatic experience that we went through, because they were not being warned about the potential dangers of these prescriptions," she said.

Tischler said having the law named for her Buoy is a beautiful, albeit "bittersweet," legacy.

"I would love to have never had to have buried Buoy, but at least now I feel as though his death was not in vain," she said.