Angry Vets is a website written, managed and run by a couple of male veterinarians, Dr Robert Foley and Dr Michael Ferber.

The Angry Vets…Dr. Robert Foley and Dr. Michael Ferber

I love what they have to say and so will many other cat caretakers/guardians. They challenge the status quo by which I mean they challenge what is happening generally in the veterinary world. They ask fundamental questions. And there are lots of questions to ask and answer.

For example, they say that there is a fundamental tenet in veterinary medicine which states “first do no harm” (“primum non nocere”). Every veterinarian swears an oath to this creed. In their own way they are evaluating whether the status quo in veterinary clinics reflects this fundamental tenet which underpins all veterinarians work. I can say right away that the average US vet does not stick to his/her oath because most vets in the US declaw cats for non-therapeutic purposes. That alone is enough to say that vets fail in a fundamental way. Note: I hope, I really hope that these guys do not declaw cats because if they do, you can forget everything that they say and write.

Drs Foley and Ferber ask whether it is enough to simply follow basic veterinary guidelines. For example, on a page in which they write about the explosion in the pet food industry they ask whether veterinarians are doing enough to use diet to prevent disease rather than to treat disease. They believe that it is fair to say that over the years of their practice a lot more focus has been given to using nutrition to treat disease rather than to prevent it.

We – the thinking cat caretaker – believe that diet should be used to prevent disease and far too much of commercially produced cat food misleadingly states that it is good to help cure certain diseases when, in fact it can do the opposite – i.e. kibble causing diabetes, cystitis etc..

These two enlightened and open-minded and indeed transparent veterinarians who are questioning what is happening in the veterinary world are certainly asking questions and challenging guidelines such as:

• Do veterinarians vaccinate too much?
• Why do veterinarians often vaccinate with vaccines that have little or no efficacy against certain diseases?
• Are vaccinations used to lure clients into the veterinary clinic in order to sell them other treatments and products?
• Are vaccines sometimes dangerous when overused?
• Why do some veterinarians make recommendations to their clients which they do not themselves follow with respect to their animal companions?
• They even ask a question with respect to spaying and neutering your cat. They ask whether veterinarians should routinely recommend spaying and neutering as the only option for a pet owner.
• They ask whether an unneutered cat is in fact healthier? Can you believe that? A lot of the time veterinarians promote the concept that neutering and spaying results in a healthier cat, putting aside for a minute the other benefits such as reducing unwanted cats.
• Is spaying and neutering a quick and easy procedure to generate income for the veterinarian? This is another question that they ask themselves. I’m not going to preclude the possibility that they may come up with an answer that it is better to spay and neuter but at least they are asking the question.

Critically, they ask the question as to why obesity is such a problem amongst domestic cats despite so-called advances in nutrition. I look forward to answers to this question.

They also ask a profound question about whether forcing cats and dogs to fit into our lifestyles actually removes them from the natural state to which their bodies have become adapted for optimal health. I have raised questions about this many times. Some people, cat owners, do not recognise the need to ensure that their cat’s lives are as natural a lifestyle as possible in the interests of health.

In short, they are bringing these fundamental questions into the open rather than discussing them the behind closed doors. This is a first as far as I know. They welcome dissent and they welcome arguments about these questions.

The objective is to become better veterinarians, better cat and dog caretakers and therefore to improve the welfare of cats and dogs. Wow..impressed or what?

Link to the Angry Vets website