Irvine Vet Cleared of Cat-Abuse Charges Sues for $10 Million

An Irvine veterinarian has filed a $10-million lawsuit against the city and several of its animal-control officers after being cleared by an Orange County Superior Court judge of allegations that he abused several cats.

Thomas H. Elston, founder of T.H.E. Cat Hospital in Irvine, had his license suspended earlier this year after the state Veterinary Medical Board charged him with abusing four cats. The three-month suspension was based on the complaints of two teenage witnesses who were helping out at the animal hospital at the time. As a result of the suspension and accompanying publicity, Elston said, his clinic is in danger of closing.

“It has hurt business tremendously,” he said. “There’s a real possibility that we’ll go out of business.”

In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, Elston alleges that the city and four of its animal-control officers prepared “false and/or misleading police reports” that they turned over to the medical board, resulting in the action against him.

Elston said he filed the lawsuit to seek compensation for damage to his business and his reputation.

Irvine City Manager Paul Brady said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. “I want to see what the facts are,” he said.

The case stemmed from four complaints by the two witnesses that Elston had, among other things, stomped on one cat and swung it by its tail. An administrative law judge dismissed two of the four charges. And, in an order dated Nov. 25, Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert E. Thomas wrote that “there is no evidence that the cats . . . sustained injury.”

A review of the case, Thomas wrote, revealed that the testimony of one witness “is not reliable” and that, in another instance, Elston had successfully restrained a cat that tried to bolt while being treated with chemotherapy.

The allegations have been personally and professionally devastating to Elston, said his attorney, Richard Vilkin. The veterinarian, Vilkin said, “is really a pioneer in this field who, up until this incident, had an [excellent] national and international reputation.”