At work, we are encouraged to set a profesesional goal each year. Mine is to learn to edit video, so I decided to try my hand at a video post for social media. Please check it out at and share with your friends and family:
The video says:
You would never say…
“If they really loved…
… kids/food/cars/computers…
…they’d do it for free!”
“Why would you say it about your vet?”
@VetsArePeople2
It may seem ridiculous, but this is one kind of abuse vets and vet staff receive on a regular basis from pet owners. I’ve been in situations where I didn’t have the cash to pay for vet care when my pets were seriously ill, so I do understand the fear, worry, and distress on the side of the pet owner.
But, it is never OK to take out your financial frustrations on the vet. When pet owners accuse them of not caring and/or only being in it for the money, it causes the vets serious depression and anxiety. They have put themselves through vet school by taking on hundreds of thousands in student debt and worked hard so they could spend their lives helping the animals they love.
Vets already experience significant distress when their clients aren’t able to afford the care their pets need. They wish they could give every pet the best possible outcome. But vets are not superhuman. They can’t just magic funding out of thin air to cover the costs of the medical supplies, medications, machines, blood work analysis, staff, and more for every pet’s treatment. If they did, they would go out of business and more pets would lose access to veterinary care.
A couple of days before I posted this video (unbeknownst to me till after I posted it), one of the vets I follow on #VetTwitter tweeted about just this type of situation. A client of her had posted a review of her on Facebook that began: “They don’t care about the animals and are just in it for the money.”
Unfortunately, this type of tone-deaf review is all too common in veterinary medicine and causes the vets a lot of distress. Online attakcs against vets often result in mass attacks and even threats of bodily harm against staff of the practice. I’m glad Dr. Doolittle decided to stand up for herself and set the record straight by responding to this review and telling her side of it.
Oftentimes, vets go far above and beyond for their patients by giving complimentary pain meds at their own expense when the owners refuse it—out of love for their patients. When a vet does this at a practice they do not own, this is done by taking a hit on their own paycheck.
