Oregon: Miranda Nickeson, 26, cited for animal cruelty after operating on her bearded dragon, causing its death

OREGON -- The Eugene owner of a pet bearded dragon is speaking out after he says his family received death threats and “backlash from around the world” regarding his wife’s citation for animal neglect.

Robert Nickeson’s wife, Miranda Raedell Nickeson, 26, was cited by Eugene police Sunday after the family’s pet lizard died from injuries related to the amputation of its tail without the help of a veterinarian.

Miranda Nickeson posted photos online of the lizard’s tail before and after the home procedure, asking the Bearded Dragon Lovers World Wide Facebook group for advice regarding rubbing alcohol to keep the wound clean and how to help the animal through shock. The post has since gone viral, as Facebook users criticized the family for doing the surgery. One of those users, police confirmed, contacted the authorities.

Miranda Nickeson, a mother of three — who is the only one cited in the case — defended herself to the critics online, stating that her husband had done the surgery because the family could not afford the $1,600 a veterinarian allegedly wanted to preform the amputation. The surgery was needed to remove a large growth from the tail, the family said. She said she had been told by a veterinarian to do the surgery at home, telling the Facebook group “it’s common for people to do it themselves.”

Robert Nickeson admitted Friday that he was the one who performed the procedure after watching a couple of videos on YouTube. He said he used a medical scalpel he took from a doctor’s office. He says the backlash he has received is “blown way out of proportion.”

Robert Nickeson insists that the animal “never even flinched” during the surgery.

“I did it with the best intentions to try and save my lizard’s life. It was a mistake,” Robert Nickeson said. “But she was already gone. It was our one last chance to save her. She wasn’t eating and we’d been having to hand feed her for the last week. But no one held her down. She was holding herself up. She didn’t even flinch because the tail was already dead. There was very little blood at all.”

The female bearded dragon was a part of the Nickeson family for three years and was named Agleiska, a native American word for lizard.

A year ago, a tumor appeared on its tail, Robert Nickeson said, and the family began feeding it a high protein diet of mice, on the advice of a pet store employee. Robert Nickeson declined to reveal which pet store he spoke to, to avoid “throwing anyone else under the bus.”

“The tumor was small at first and it started out from one of her sheds,” Robert Nickeson said. “It was a bad shed and unlike smooth-skinned lizards, the scales on a bearded dragon are like shingles on a roof, and you can’t assist (the skin), or you’ll rip off the new scales.”

He said he called veterinarians, but most wouldn’t see Agleiska because she’s considered an exotic animal. The one who would take her, Robert Nickeson said, wanted $900 for the exam and possible procedure to remove the lump. Robert Nickeson also declined to reveal the veterinarian’s name.

“It was that or I could relinquish my animal, they told me,” Nickeson said. “I should have relinquished my animal, I am not going to deny that.”

But the family kept the lizard, with the hopes the high protein diet would work. Instead, over time Agleiska became thinner. The family doubled her diet, but she was wasting away, Robert Nickeson said.

He estimated that the growth was the size of a kiwi fruit at the time of the amputation. Agleiska died the next day.

“We were wrong for what we did, and we’re sorry,” Robert Nickeson said. “But people are spreading so many lies on the Internet about us and about our parenting. Threats to cut my wife’s tongue out. I was followed home by six people. There is no reason to have all of that. They’re talking around the world about our parenting and our lives in the community. What does that have to do with a lizard?”

Robert Nickeson said he and his wife initially did not return a request for comment from the newspaper because they were nervous what would be accomplished by speaking out. But he said he wants their side of the story told and mostly, “I want the threats to stop.”

The fine Miranda Nickeson received in accordance with her citation is $300, Robert Nickeson said.

(Register Guard - Jan 30, 2016)