Veterinarian reported her client to Animal Control because she feeds her cats and dogs a raw diet

On my reading of this story, it is an extraordinary example of a veterinarian being irritated by the fact that her client politely rejected her advice to purchase a ‘prescription diet’ and as a consequence, when the veterinarian learned that her client fed her cats and dogs a raw cat food diet, she decided to report her to Animal Control. The event took place in the USA.

The veterinarian told Animal Control that her client was endangering the lives of her animals and starving them through poor food choices and that it was a case of severe neglect and abuse. As I said…extraordinary.

Here is some detail…A lady, who in order to retain her anonymity has been called Mrs V, took her ill goat to her veterinarian. The veterinarian having carried out some tests recommended the ubiquitous ‘prescription diet’. No doubt it was on the shelves of the clinic at top prices.

Mrs V, we are told, is an intelligent animal owner. She looks after cats, dogs, chickens, goats and peafowl. She knows about animal foods. She has taken advice on how to prepare raw foods for her animals. When a raw diet is properly prepared with an adequate amount of expertise there is no doubt in my mind that it is an excellent diet for domestic animals.

However, veterinarians in general don’t like to recommend raw diets because they feel that the average cat owner is unable to prepare the food properly to ensure that it is fully balanced and uncontaminated. Therefore they discourage their clients to prepare a raw food diet. That’s about as far as it goes but on this occasion the veterinarian went a lot further.

Mrs V politely rejected her veterinarian’s advice (for good reason based on her experience and knowledge) and in doing so she upset her veterinarian. She appears to have become hostile. The veterinarian said that only a veterinary nutritionist has sufficient knowledge to prepare such a diet. She accused Mrs V of jeopardising the health and welfare of her animals. She accused Mrs V of thinking that she knew better than the pet food industry. She did!

Mrs V paid her bill for the advice that her vet had given her regarding her goat and left the clinic. Soon after arriving at home, Animal Control showed up with three vans and a trailer!

She learned that her vet had accused her of neglecting her animals as mentioned above. Fortunately Animal Control was sensible enough to listen to Mrs V. They checked her animals and found them all in good health, apologised to the lady and departed.

In some states in the USA there is an obligation on veterinarians to report instances of what they consider to be animal abuse or neglect. In this instance the veterinarian was either overzealous or piqued by the rejection of her client to accept her recommendations. She became annoyed and retaliated. It almost seems like she felt insulted by the fact that her client had rejected her advice, took it too personally and wanted to hit back. That is my reading of the situation. Perhaps the conversation became animated and words were said which upset both parties – a bad vet experience.

Those who have commented have concluded that (a) there were ego issues which resulted in a deterioration of their relationship and (b) the almighty $$ got in the way.

It is extraordinary and it does raise question marks about feeding a raw food diet to your cat and/or other domestic animals in certain states in the USA. That said, I think that this is an exceptional case and I do not see it happening again.

The source: Two Crazy Ladies – nice story ladies…