Andrea Rosebrock 
Veterinary medicine, like human medicine, has its share of good and bad practitioners but I’ve been seeing an alarming trend in the area of veterinary medicine. There was a time when vets treated animals for the love of animals and because they cared. Veterinary medicine had gotten as bad as human medicine and in some ways even worse!
At least many people have medical insurance and there are programs for people who need medical care. For pets, yes, there is medical insurance available but compared to the numbers of pets, coverage is not wide spread yet. And yes, there are some low cost programs available but they are mostly spay/neuter programs and vaccination programs.
Veterinary medicine has turned into ‘big business,’ revolving door, ‘bottom line’ watchers. Most vets require 75% upfront payment for any kind of surgical procedure and if there’s any doubt about paying the bill, which can easily mount in the thousands of dollars, they won’t touch your pet. Vet visits and surgery cost dog owners almost $800 and cat owners $500 last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. And this is just an average! Few vets are willing to set up payment plans.
I’ve come across several stories in the news lately that have really bothered me, vets holding dogs ‘hostage,’ threatening ‘death’ over bills. People doctors don’t even do anything like that, so how can vets get away with it? Because animals are considered nothing but ‘possessions?’
Josh Gomez of Gwinnet, Georgia, say that his vet, Dr. Garry Innocent of PetFIRST Animal Hospital in Duluth is holding his black border collie, Pilot, hostage and is threatening to send him the an animal shelter where he could be euthanized.
Gomez has already paid Innocent the agreed on amount of $1,125 for the treatment of the pup’s virus in August. The next thing he knew there were all kinds of additional charges that had not been agreed on. The bill jumped to $1,640 and has been increasing daily, with the vet holding the puppy, because of a $27 a day boarding charge. As of the 14th of September, Gomez owed almost an additional $1000 over what he initially agreed to pay Dr. Garry Innocent and PetFIRST Animal Hospital. As a 22 yr old, at home music teacher, Gomez says he just can’t afford to pay the outrageous charges. He’s already run up $400 on his girlfriend’s charge card and used a $750 loan from his employer.
And just what does Dr. Innocent have to say about this, “He’s being such a twit, he just needs to pay his bill.”
How’s that for understanding and compassion?
On Tuesday the vet plans to send Gomez’s dog, Pilot, to an animal shelter. Gomez has filed a lawsuit in Gwinnett Superior Court this week to block Innocent and PetFIRST Animal Hospital from handing Pilot over to animal-control authorities. His lawyer, Ed McCrimmon, says the Georgia law is unconstitutional because it enables pet clinics to take people’s property without ‘due process.’
In another story from San Antonio, Texas, Jacqueline Hines rescued a little Chihuahua off the streets. She was just being a Good Samaritan, helping an animal in need. And of course when the little dog, who she named Macho, got sick, she took him to the vet.
Hines, a 76 year old widow on a fixed income, told the vet that she couldn’t pay more than $100 and the vet told her ok, treated the dog and charged her $93. Sounds pretty good so far, right?
Well the next morning Macho was even worse so Hines took him back, another $341!
Then two hours later she was back in the emergency room with her little dog because he was worse yet! “I was definitely having an anxiety attack,” Hines said.
Here the dog had been ‘treated’ and sent home twice to a total of $434, after Hines expressly told the vet that she was on a fixed income and could only afford $100. To me, a reputable vet would have done a little better at ascertaining the situation and honestly let Hines know what was wrong with the dog or if he didn’t know, at least tell her that he would not be able to treat the dog with her financial restraints and allow her to see if she could find other options. He would not have repeatedly ‘treated’ the dog, charged her and sent the dog home only to have her bring the dog back for additional ‘emergency’ treatments!
This last time she was unable to pay the bill and had to leave her little dog at the vet’s office because, of course, they couldn’t let her take him home. Five days later Hines gets a letter in the mail.
“Telling me that if I did not pay within 12 days, they were going to kill the dog,” Hines said.
The actual wording of the letter was, “We intend to dispose of the animal,” wording taken directly from Texas law that allows vets to dispose of abandoned animals.
The vet did say that contrary to Hines’ belief based on the wording ‘dispose of the animal,’ that they try to find a home for the animal, not kill it!
Luckily for Hines, before her little companion could be ‘disposed’ of, a friend paid off the vet bill and now she and Macho are reunited and she can repay her friend over time.
That’s two stories of pets being held ‘hostage’ with vets threatening to ‘dispose’ of them if they don’t get their money. I have no doubt that Jacqueline Hines would have agreeably worked out some kind of payment plan with the vet if that had been an option, after all, she’s worked one out to repay her friend.
And here’s just one more. No dog is being held ‘hostage’ but because the owner couldn’t pay up-front, a dog in grievous pain was turned away at the door or numerous vets even though the owner offered to set up payment plans with them to get her dog treated.
Loraine Standifer of Fort Worth, Texas, was moving and asked a friend to watch her shepherd-mix dog, Amir. All was fine until one day her friend got home from work and found that someone had poured some corrosive liquid, like acid, on the dog’s back. Standifer rushed over and tried and tried to find a vet who would work out a payment plan for the extensive and costly surgery that Amir would need. The dog was in pain but all the vets she contacted turned her down.
Luckily for her and Amir, the rescue group that she adopted Amir from did put her in touch with a vet that actually did the surgery and cared for Amir for free. There actually are still some vets out there who work from the heart rather than with wallet.
Veterinary Salaries have risen, and newer Veterinarians are demanding higher starting salaries before they even walk in the door. A new graduate will start at 60,000 dollars a year. Higher end corporate practices will pay even more. Those practice owners earn in excess of 100,000 dollars a year. I do know that veterinary medicine has changed and become much more specialized. I realize that there are overhead costs and salaries and equipment but I also feel that medicine, whether animal or human, should be practiced from the heart and not the wallet. What would be the harm of adding a little compassion, at no charge?
Sources – AJC, My San Antonio, Post
[...] For the Love of the Dog Veterinary medicine, like human medicine, has its share of good and bad practitioners but I’ve [...]
I am a veterinary technician. That is my JOB. It is how I earn MONEY. Maybe the next time my phone bill, house payment and car payment come in, I’ll tell them that you said I should only work for compassion and see if they will let me pay those bills with compassion. Unlikely. Maybe since you are so compassionate, you will pay my bills for me so I can help animals for free? These individual cases are all very sad. But add them up and there is thousands of dollars of proceedures done here. That poor dog with the acid wounds would literally be thousands of dollars of care. Why should a vet spend HOURS and days and weeks taking care of this pet and NOT be paid? And excuse me if a vet thinks they should make $60,000 to $100,000 per year. Those are not outrageous salaries. My brother does clerical work and makes $45,000 a year and I don’t even make $30,000. But apparently you think his job is more valuable than mine and that saving lives is a monitarily worthless profession. Good thing there are many people who don’t think like you because then there would be NO vets because no one could make a living at it.
And I am extremely offended by your comments on the Chihuahua case. You have NO idea what the medical problem was and what that vet did to try to fix it. Funny, the way I see it is that the vet’s kind heart tried to help this woman and her dog and stay within her budget. Unfortunately, the dog did not respond the way he had hoped and needed additional care. Again, he probably tried to keep costs to a minimum but still the dog did not respond. Does that make the vet a jerk? I don’t think so. I think he was trying to be nice but it just didn’t work out. Why do you assume the worst about the vet and not the owner of the dog?? And it would take a LOT for the ER clinic to send her an abandonment letter. Generally it would have to be days and days of her not contacting them or not following through on ANY promises to try to pay the bill. And if she had a friend that was willing to help her once the abandonment letter came, why could she have not asked that friend to help before?? I’ll bet you she is much more likely to pay that friend back than she ever would be to pay the vet clinic back. Because she probably thinks like you that vets are rich and you don’t really owe them the money.
I used to work at an ER clinic. On average, we would have three people call per night that had pets that needed care but had no money. If the average bill at the ER is $300, then that is $900 a day in free services people were asking for and over the course of a year almost $330,000 worth of free services. Why should any vet be asked to shoulder that responsibility. Yes, on a case by case basis, these are all sad, but there is a bigger picture and we can’t save them all and still stay in business. And I’ll bet you haven’t called your local vet to offer money to help the poor. I’ll bet you that if you offered to pay for the base cost of all pets of poor owners that the vet would work out a deal with you. Let me know when you get that set up.
Hooray fellow tech. anyone who has become a LVT or a RVT has spent a lot of time and money on a profession that is done for the love of the animals as a matter of fact I bet you have several pets yourself that were discarded from someone. I know I have 3 that not because they couldn’t afford the services but felt the animal wasn’t worth it. I am an LVT. I do this for the animals, I donate a lot of time and services to abandoned and injured animals. I take critical post ops home (with owner consent) We at our clinic have set up payment plans and have been burned so often that the doctor no longer wants to do it. Do the people want us to keep our doors open for them? Do they want a staff that continues their education and knows whats new and working? I myself at $30,000.00 a year struggle with the bills just like everyone else, but just as I have money put away for my famlies just in case something happens, my dogs have a just in case fund. If you can’t afford to take care of them, if an emergency comes to pass. Don’t get them to begin with. I love my dogs, and I would pick up cans on the side of the road to pay their bills if I had to. I would borrow from friends, and family. Would your auto mechanic offer you a payment plan? Maybe a car is not a life but I think if the person didn’t have their car they would find a way to pay the bill.
Andi Thank you for being a kind hearted person. This world could certainly use many many more. Now as to your getting by on the 30,000.00 a year. I’ll swap you. I have to get by on 13,000.00. And as for the fact that you say if a person can’t afford it they shouldn’t get any pets. No I can’t afford it and probly never will but my girls don’t go hungry. They aren’t ever dirty and they are loved every single minute of every single day. Of course I guess if I went with your thinking these little babies would have been a whole lot better of starving out on the streets when the insensitive louts abandoned them and lets not forget the wonderful future they could have looked forward to if by chance the animal control officer would have picked them up. Now that is a prize in its self.
There are no kill shelters that operate on far less money than the bigger groups. Now if these smaller operations can be a no kill, why can’t the others? Now what is that word I’m looking for? Oh yeh ~ MONEY : (
Beau, thank you for taking the time to comment. I can understand why you would be incensed. First, please allow me to clarify, I have never said that anyone should offer their service for free. That is no where in the article I wrote. What I did say that that doctors, people or animal, need to work a little more from the heart rather than looking at patients at nothing but money machines.
In the case with the dog with acid wounds, the owner repeatedly offered to work with the vets to set up some kind of payment plan. She was not asking for free services. She had a dog in severe pain that no one would even look at without seeing the green first.
As for the case of the chihuahua, no, I have no idea what the exact circumstances were but I do know that the woman who owned the dog very specifically and upfront told the vet she was on a fixed income and could only pay just so much. My statement was that “…done a little better at ascertaining the situation and honestly let Hines know what was wrong with the dog or if he didn’t know, at least tell her that he would not be able to treat the dog with her financial restraints and allow her to see if she could find other options.” I was say that he should have treated the dog for free, just that he should have taken her situation under consideration in evaluating the dog’s illness.
As for your salary and your brother’s, “I” do not think that his job is more valuable than yours nor do I think that saving lives is a ‘monetarily worthless profession.’ I have the greatest respect for lifesavers but I also think that those who go into the profession with the bottom line in mind, rather than the value and love of life, demean the profession.
I have never said that services should not be paid for but it does sadden me that veterinary medicine, like human medicine, is going the way of ‘big business’ with the emphasis on the buck rather than the patient. And unfortunately, in the case of veterinary medicine, their patients are considered only ‘possessions’ by law thus giving the caregiver the leeway to literally ‘dispose’ of them with little to no recourse by the ‘possession’s” owner.
Doing what I do here, I have many friends and know many pet owners and have heard an increasing number of stories where a person has taken their pet to one vet and been charged astronomically only to go to a second vet, often over the outrage of the first at being second-guessed, and be told that outright that they were overcharged, that their pet was put through high priced, unnecessary tests and treatment. If I only heard this one time from one person or even twice, I might discount it, but after you hear this story time and time again, it makes you think.
And please also believe me, I know there are many, many wonderful and compassionate doctors out there that are in their profession for the love of it and you can tell the difference. They are happy, their patients are happy and the whole quality of the experience id better, even it if turns out to be lifetaking. I know many vets whose first concern is the welfare of their patient, then they concern themselves about the money and to be honest, vets like these who show the care and love and compassion, tend to be quite well paid. And I don’t begrudge them one penny of the money they earn.
everyone knows vets are lovers of animals and they also have to earn a living but there is no reason for an animal to go untreated because you dont have the money upfront they are still living creatures shame on the losers who have no compassion there needs to be something done to correct this issue
Yeh a firing squad would take care of the problem nicely : )
Here is a personal sitution that I had with a area vet. I had numerous stray animals plus my own dogs and cats spayed and neutered over the years. This vet also walked around with a wallet stuffed with money. The wallet was 2or 3 inches thick. He was the only vet in the area. Made a lot of money!!! I asked him once if he could see his way clear to do a low cost spay/neuter clinic to help poor people have their animals fixed thereby reducing the number of kittens(this area is overun with strays)and puppies born. His reply “Oh no I can’t do that because Mrs. well to do would then try to get off with not paying the right amount!!! Yes he might have loved animals but he loved money more. He retired a VERY rich man.
The ? . Can’t compare him to anything because frankly I can’t think of anything that low except another one of his species. And he didn’t love animals, that is fairly obious the prick !
Wow – this certainly turned into a heated discussion.
I have to agree with most posters here -vets are outrageous. Now mind you – I am a person who spent $500 on a rat surgery and more recently $1165 on a cat. There are NOT my possessions – they ar family. I don’t make enuf to afford this – I had to take money out of my IRA for my cat and the rat was fortunate enuf to need surgery right after my tax refund.
My cat vet – allowed me to pay 1/2 up front and the remaining 1/2 when I picked her up.
I have heard many stories from friends who dealt with “uncaring” vets and it irritates me to no end. If I go to the ER – I will get treated up front and then need to deal with the finances at a later date. Why can’t animals have the same option????
No one PLANS to bail – but at the time of crisis, not everyone has the funds needed.
I don’t think it’s right or fair for an animal to be held hostage over a matter of payment.
Say isn’t there a law on the books where people can sue jerks for causing Hardship? Now that would be justice for sure if that damed vet and hospital got sued and had to pay out a whopping amount , now the thought of that put a big smile on my face : )
Part of the problem is most people see there pet as not a necessary expense. So it is hard to think that a responsible owner will spend a few hundred or thousand dollars over the life of the pet. With the large overhead for any Vet hospital including the cost for professional service the cost appear high which many discounted services are not. Noted, people need to be paid for their craft.
Yeh and just like the hospitals and doctors they have such an outrageous price on their services that most people can’t afford them. And if that isn’t bad enough they are going to dispose of an animal if the people don’t cough up the money. Stupid SOB’s. They should rot in hell!
You know these are not humane they are dispicable low down scum and should be put in the same pot as the dog fighters and abusers. They should have their vet licenses ripped up into thousands of pieces and shunned by every decent humane being there is and made outcast.The hospital and vet offices should be picketed so people can find out what kind of rancent monsters they will be dealing with. All I know is that if some POS did that to mine they would never do it to anyone elses and you can take that to the bank, because I actually HATE all of these miserable SOB’s and hope to God they get everything that they have coming to them. My only regret is that I won’t have the pleasure of watching. Dam the luck.