HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Zoetis Vetscan Imagyst Allegedly Misclassified Dog's Cancerous Tumor, Leading to Second Surgery and Death

October 1, 2025

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.

This incident highlights the need for responsible AI development and governance, particularly in medical diagnosis where accuracy is paramount. As we strive for trustworthy AI, it is crucial that we learn from such mistakes and implement measures to prevent them in the future. Contributors—JOIN US—to learn more about AI governance and harm prevention.

HISPI Project Cerebellum TAIM can provide valuable insights into this incident through Govern, Map, or Measure. By understanding the root causes of this misclassification, we can work towards creating safer and more accurate medical imaging systems.

Matched TAIM controls

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Alleged deployer
veterinarians, columbia-veterinary-hospital-(the-dalles-oregon), ai-diagnostic-system-deployers
Alleged developer
zoetis, ai-diagnostic-system-developers
Alleged harmed parties
unnamed-11-year-old-belgian-tervuren, pets, pet-owners, epistemic-integrity, dogs, animal-life

AI governance case studies

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Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1631

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.