It’s Been a Long Week, and Other Important Things

I don’t know how everyone else’s week is going, but mine certainly is dragging.  I work shift work, so each week my schedule can be completely different; midnights, swing shifts, days, you name it–I’m all over the map.  My days off are different each week.  It goes hand in hand with supporting a 24-hour operation, and I’ve been doing it for many years now, but sometimes it weighs on me more than usual.  Honestly, the first hour of each morning has felt like it’s taken all day.

But somehow I always survive, because we have bills to pay, mouths to feed, and because sometimes we like to buy a bottle of wine and chill the fuck out when we are at home.  You do what you’ve gotta do to make sure that things get taken care of, and I guess that’s the bottom line.

For days now, my Facebook news feed has been swirling with various articles and petitions regarding a veterinarian in St. Catharines who was videotaped beating, choking and abusing animals that were in his care over the course of two years.  The employees at his office have all taken a stand against him, and now he is under investigation by the OSPCA.  The controversy is that despite video proof that this man whom we should trust above all others to care for our animals in a humane and loving way has been abusing his power and physically harming them instead, the Ontario Veterinary College gave him a ten-month suspension (slap on the wrist) with a possibility of reducing it to six months if he takes certain courses in the interim.

I feel very strongly that under no circumstances should he be allowed to ever practice again.   I would never allow him anywhere near my pets–he has abused the trust of the people who came to him, and who knows what kind of permanent damage he has caused an unfathomable amount of animals during that time.  I used to work as a veterinary assistant, and I have seen dogs with psychological problems first-hand.  They can pose a threat even to the family who loves them.  This vet needs to have his license permanently revoked.  Truthfully I don’t think that anyone in St. Catharines is ever going to bring their pets to his office again knowing what we know about him, so he will probably have to close it anyway and move somewhere where nobody knows who he is or what he’s done, but he absolutely needs to be properly punished.

If anyone has read this and feels the need to know more about it or wants to sign a petition as well, I will post some information below.

Outrage After St. Catharines Vet Caught Abusing Pets Suspended for Only 10 Months

Article from the Toronto Star

Link to the Change.org Petition