Shirley Koshi, DVM, 55

(Beth Clifton photo)

Suicide by drug overdose

Shirley Koshi, DVM, 55, owner of the Gentle Hands veterinary clinic in Riverdale, New York, was found dead on February 16, 2014 of an apparent suicide by drug overdose, Barry Paddock and John Marzulli of the New York Daily News reported.

“Koshi’s death, which is still under investigation by the NYPD and the city medical examiner, was the climax of a downward spiral that clinic technician Will Page said began with the filing of a lawsuit against her last fall in Bronx Civil Court,” Paddock and Marzulli wrote. Neuter/return practitioner Gwen Jurmark, 62, sued Koshi, Paddock and Marzulli recounted, “because Jurmark said the vet refused to hand over a black-and-white cat named Karl.

The sick feline was rescued in August 2013 from Raoul Wallenberg Park in the Bronx,” by two women who took the cat to Koshi for treatment of a severe urinary tract infection. The cat had been at Gentle Hands for about 10 days when Jurmark first claimed him. Opened in July 2013, the Gentle Hands clinic was reportedly already financially struggling when some of Jurmark’s supporters urged a boycott of it, both online and by picketing it.