I follow three or four local “lost and found pet” groups on Facebook. These are places where people in the community can post photos of dogs they’ve lost or found, and where neighbors can come together in the comments to offer suggestions to both distraught owners of lost dogs or overwhelmed dog finders. These sites can be invaluable for reuniting pets and owners, as members tend to be the kind of people who pay attention and remember any stray or needy animals they’ve seen.
When I have found a stray dog, it’s helpful to already belong to these groups, so I can quickly submit a “found dog” post. Usually, nonmembers of these groups can’t post to them; generally, you have to wait for a moderator to approve of your membership in the group before you can post – and sometimes it takes a moderator a day or more to respond to your request to join the group! As an already-approved member of these groups, I’ve had responses that helped locate the owners of the dog or dogs I found within an hour!
That’s the good news. The bad news is that these groups can also be a place where people with animal-related problems blame others in the community for those problems, look for other people to solve their problems for them, and bash anyone in the helping professions who fail to help. Animal control officers who fail to materialize immediately, shelters that are overcrowded, and veterinarians who fail to go to any lengths to save the lives of injured stray animals often get singled out for shaming and blaming. I try hard not to read those posts – and have to try even harder, sometimes, to not to respond to them!
Well, I failed utterly the other day. Here was the post that caught my eye:
The post reads:
“I felt compelled to write this post and share something sad that happened this afternoon on XXXXX Road. My neighbor called me to say he found a chocolate lab in front of his house that had been hit by a car. I immediately rushed over and the owner was there. The dog was seriously injured but still alert. Both the front and back legs were broken. They had already called several places without success. No one was willing to come out and euthanize her (XXX).
“Most disturbing too (stet) me was discovering the XXXXXXX Veterinary Hospital (my neighbor had been taking their animals too (stet) for the past 30 years (not even a minute up the street) had refused to help. I decided to call the hospital myself hoping that a second house on their street would convince them of the urgency. This poor baby had been out there suffering for over an hour at this point. I was told everyone was with clients and they would call me back. I let them know this animal was a patient of theirs and in immediate need and I was certain their clients would be willing to wait 10 minutes if they knew it meant the end to an animals (stet) misery. Unfortunately this did not help. The animal had to be lifted into the back of a truck by the neighbors (stet) son. More pain and unnecessary suffering.
“The lack of care for the animals entrusted to them in their own community is appalling and unacceptable. I refuse to take my sweet girls XXXX and XXXX their (stet) in the future.
“My heart breaks for XXXXXX and her parents”
Within hours, there were more than 100 comments from people who were promising to never bring business to the named vet clinic and, what’s more, stating that they would be leaving the vet clinic a bad review.
I don’t know the veterinarian at that clinic personally, but I have a friend who takes all of her pets there – and my friend has encouraged me to bring my dogs there if my vets are ever unavailable, because even though this clinic is farther away than the clinics I currently patronize, my friend finds that the vet and support staff there to be uniquely kind and competent, and the wait times not bad. Through my friend (and a quick review of the clinic’s website to be certain), I’m aware that this clinic has one doctor working there. And now there are hundreds of people in our community being told that this doctor is heartless and inhumane, because she didn’t leave her patients on a moment’s notice in order to run down the street and euthanize a dog on the side of the road. Argh!
Social media can do so much good, especially when it’s bringing people together to accomplish something for those in need. Why do so many people insist on using it for negativity?
If she had broken legs, why the heck didn’t the owner take her to the nearest emergency clinic, or even the vet involved, for treatment? Broken legs are painful, granted, but they’re not fatal. And what was she doing running around loose in the first place? Was this a one-off mishap, or was it habitual? Why didn’t the person who hit her stop and render aid? If you want to be outraged at someone, that would be the person. And people will claim to be a client of a vet even if the last time they brought their dog there was as a puppy. There is a lot more to this story than is presented here, and we have no way of knowing any of it. It’s even possible the vet herself never knew of the incident, as calls are not usually picked up by vets, but by their staffs.
I agree…quit blaming the vet who is probably working his/her ass off already trying to accommodate people and their pets (by the way, my husband is a vet and I manage it and serve as technician for the past 37 years, so I am very heavily involved in this field). Why don’t owners ever take any responsibility? Why was this dog running around loose? That’s the responsibility of the owner, first and foremost. Also, it’s not just a one and done to go render aid to a dog hit by a car. And why immediately assume the dog should be euthanized? Broken legs are fixable. Dogs aren’t wild deer. People act like this would take 5 minutes. They are all out of touch with reality.
I agree with the post let others know this vet didn’t take the time for such a horrible emergency so they know the vet won’t take the time for there pets either. I believe most owners in that vets office would have waited. All four legs a on that furbaby were busted why would anyone want to move it more than necessary 💔😢
I found this post to be unfair to the vet. There were many people guilty of what happened to this poor dog, from the owner (loose dog) to the driver of the vehicle that hit the dog (driving too fast?), If it were my dog, I would have taken it to the vet immediately not waited for the vet to make an unscheduled trip to a roadside. Maybe this dog could have been saved if transported to a clinic immediately and evaluated. Too many unknowns and emotions here, but easy to find someone else to blame.
Good points, Eileen!
Everyone, please remember there are at least two sides to every story. Unless you were at the site and heard all the communication with the vet(s) involved, don’t judge. Making comments on an issue is fine, but don’t judge until you know ALL the facts.
BYW, I worked as a vet tech for over 7 years and very few small anmal vets will leave their clinic to treat an animal. It’s not productive. However, if a HBC (hit by car) or another emergency case came into the clininc, it got priority over appointments. So in any emergency situation, don’t wait, transport your animal to the nearest vet. Call them while you are on the way and tell them you have an emergency coming in.
I agree. Not enough information provided, it was just one individual’s opinion. It’s more so scary to see how so many people react easily going along with someone’s opinion rather than facts.
Personally, I wouldn’t have expected a vet to come out, I’d have driven myself to the vet.
I’ve been taking my dog to vets, emergency included, in the past couple of years quite often and know how busy they’re, just like Nancy has posted a few times before about the recent Vet situations, I’ve been experiencing it myself.
The only way people will wake up to what is happening around them is posts like this woman wrote about the dog in need experience. Vets have become robots and have little to no feeling anymore about the soul and the life which is encased in that soul. It is horrible. We have many robots in positions of this nature who have lost their empathy and their natural love for animals and all others.
Thankfully, this dog will forgive the humans who are lacking compassion in their hearts. The more we hear about these situations the better. We don’t and can’t change our behavior unless we know the facts.
I can’t believe WDJ taking this stance. As a person who lives in a community that has little veterinary support when it comes to animals, even their own clients, when they are in dire need. I could go on and on with specific examples of this.
Good for this person for calling this veterinarian Out on social media!!!!!
I would like to see animal lovers/owners start to pressure their local vets for some kind of emergency assistance for their animals.
I consider it shameful that most vets will not get an animal right in in the case of emergency.
I TOTALLY AGREE!!! I would like to know exactly who this vet is. I am a health care professional and if one of my patients was in this kind of situation, i would drop EVERYTHING and respond. I didn’t go into my career with the attitude that it’s ok for animals or people to suffer!!!!!
The problem with the human society today is that they do not think about the consequences of their actions before they speak or act out. Put yourself in this doctors situation and then ask yourself if you had a fully booked day. You are the only doctor! How do you leave all those patients? If it were my dog I would be taking it to the doctor myself ASAP instead of waiting around. Sounds like the more time you are waisting time trying to get a doctor to come to you, You could of gone to the doctor!
Lifting the dog with so much injury would increase the dog’s suffering exponentially. It’s a sad conundrum.
I agree it’s too easy to bully and very easy to place blame where it isn’t warranted. But sometimes it is the only outlet for people who’s needs are not being addressed by a commercial establishment. Social media has always been a very large double edged sword. And unfortunately the good can get cut just as much as the bad. I’m not sure what the answer is.
I worked for a one man band’ vet, unless he was doing an op, he certainly would have asked his clients if they didn’t mind waiting (who would in those circumstances?) leave his receptionist in charge, taken a vet nurse and proceeded post haste to the dog in pain.
Well… if my dog and I were with my vet or waiting in the lobby and an urgent plea like that came in, I’d expect my vet to respond — whether the suffering dog was a regular patient or not. The level of suffering matters. My wait time doesn’t.
I fully agree. I think everyone who has pets would empathize with the injured dog owner’s situation. I’ve certainly waited at vets before when staff explained an emergency had come in, and there would be a delay. I’ve never heard of a vet ignoring an emergency with an animal suffering in agony.
Agreed!
What if you bring in your suffering dog to a scheduled appointment and the vet isn’t there because they are helping another dog? What if going out on the emergency call means the vet’s animals or humans suffer at home because the vet is now two hours late catching up on every appointment. What if some of the people waiting have a hard time arranging transportation, and their animal can’t be seen at all because the vet is behind schedule and they need to go? It’s very easy to make a judgement about what you would have done based on your priorities, but it is impossible when you are a provider faced with decisions like this every day, and when not all clients agree on what the priority should be.
How long would it take to go down the street and euthanize this dog and come back? Five minutes? Ten? It wouldn’t make the vet two hours late. I’ve never encountered a vet who told me to take my dog home because of an emergency meant my appt would be canceled. They have come and told me it would be a wait because of an emergency but never deny service.
I’m sorry, But even on one vet practice should at least have a vet nurse who could have gone down and euthanased the poor dog.
Unfortunately, anonimity seems to bring out the “mean girl/boy” in a lot of people.