AI incident #1631 ·
Zoetis Vetscan Imagyst Allegedly Misclassified Dog's Cancerous Tumor, Leading to Second Surgery and Death
What happened
In October 2025, Columbia Veterinary Hospital in The Dalles, Oregon reportedly used Zoetis's Vetscan Imagyst AI to analyze a rapidly growing neck mass in an 11-year-old Belgian Tervuren. The system allegedly classified the mass as inflammatory, while a later biopsy found aggressive cancer. The hospital alleges the first surgery failed to remove all cancer, requiring a second operation; the dog died from complications. Zoetis allegedly later apologized and said similar incidents had occurred.
Editor's notes (AI Incident Database)
Incident ID date is 10/01/2025, an approximation based on reporting that the incident occurred in October 2025. Lawsuit filed 07/30/2026. Incident ID created 08/08/2026.
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News reports (1)
Coverage catalogued by the AI Incident Database. Titles link to the original publisher; the text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Veterinarians Columbia Veterinary Hospital (The Dalles, Oregon) AI diagnostic system deployers
- Alleged developer
- Zoetis AI diagnostic system developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Unnamed 11-year-old Belgian Tervuren Pets Pet owners Epistemic integrity Dogs Animal life
AI systems implicated
Vetscan ImagystAI-enabled decision support systemsAI diagnostic systems
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
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Related incidents on the AI Incident Database
Linked by AIID editors or by its text-similarity model.