Veterinary Malpractice, Veterinary Negligence, and Veterinary Abuse occur all over the United States -- and the regulatory agencies that oversee vets do little or nothing about it.
Due to technical issues, I will be unable to post daily. For each missed day, an additional day will be added to the "Bad Vet Daily" term of publication, so that you will indeed end up with coverage of 365 days of Bad Vets.
Can I suggest a vet for you to feature on this blog? Yes. However, for my own legal protection I can only write about veterinarians for whom there is "public record." That means that either there must be one or more: Veterinary Board action, court case/records, public police record, or news story about the vet. Everything on this blog is either a recitation of public record or my personal opinion based on public records. I cannot print your opinion or your version of events. If there is no public record related to a veterinarian, I cannot blog about them. However, that doesn't prevent you from doing so, and I encourage you to tell your story.
Why don't you print comments on this blog? You would not believe the hateful, hurtful remarks that veterinarians and their "fans" post about grieving pet owners and dead pets, even when public record shows them to be at fault in actions surrounding the injury or death of a pet. I will not provide a forum for attacks on victims. This characterizes the majority of comments I got when I did allow them. I feel that it is best that I not allow comments either from victims or veterinarians. I want to make it clear: This blog presents public record and MY opinions based on public record. Period.
Will you revise or remove blogs about a vet if we send you more information or tell you how wonderful the vet is and why the "public record" does not reflect the true character of the vet? Probably not. I won't say "never" -- I did revise a blog ONCE in light of a very impassioned email I received from a rescue group about a vet. I did not, however, remove the blog. Out of deference to a rescue's heartfelt email, I chose to "tone down" the blog post voluntarily and remove references to items which were in the public record, but which were of a highly personal nature. But for the most part, no, I don't/won't do this. The public record, and my opinion based on it, stands.
If you have public record that is more recent, that sheds further light on events described in a blog post (for example, if a vet subsequently appealed a board decision and had it reversed or modified, but this is not mentioned in the post) then I would be happy to receive that information and will likely add an update to the bottom of the post to reflect it.
The Bad Vet Daily Goes Weekly . . . Monthly, etc.
Yes, regular readers: I'm sure you've noticed. I haven't been able to do this blog daily. Why? Is it because there aren't enough bad vets to fill 365 days a year?
Unfortunately, NO, that's not the reason, and YES, there are more than enough bad vets to fill 365 days a year.
It is because each of these posts has taken me no less than 1 1/2 hours, and sometimes, up to 4 hours. This includes identifying a case, researching readily available information on the vet's violations, and then doing a search to see if I can figure out where the vet is now.
Therefore, with pets to tend to and a job to keep, I bow to the suggestion of friends that I admit to myself this is just going to need to be a more occasional.
But in return . . . I promise to feature at LEAST 365 vets over the life of this blog.
Thank you for caring about your pets.
About State Veterinary Boards
Although most of the stories told here will be taken from State Veterinary Board disciplinary files -- don't let this lull you into thinking that Veterinary Boards are doing a good job of pursuing cases of veterinary negligence and malpractice or of protecting your pets. In fact, in many states, 90% of consumer complaints filed against vets are dismissed without action. Equally shocking -- when the vet board actually do something, it's very little. Small fines. "Stayed" suspensions where the vet loses not ONE day of work. No matter how egregious the vets behavior, no matter how long the record and how many dead pets, these vets almost never have their licenses taken away.
With a couple of exceptions, you could be going to any of the bad vets featured on this blog right now. Moreover, your vet may have a long history of consumer complaints, and yet the board may never have disciplined him.
Bad vets continue to be a problem because veterinary medicine is virtually unregulated, with negligent practitioners being allowed to continue to pry their trades as more victims are lured in the door.
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