08/07/2022
Copied from a colleague of mine. Dr Russ
I had a particularly unsettling experience a couple of days ago that is reflective of the abuse veterinary personnel face regularly from a small but tremendously toxic faction of the pet-owning community. To be clear, the vast majority of pet owners are great clients and-even in the face of adversity-are reasonable and understanding people. Sometimes people will post negative reviews about a business on social media and internet review sites if they have had a negative experience with a particular business. If you are not a client of a business, you really shouldn't post anything about it, positive or negative. If you are a client and you had such a bad experience, it is your prerogative and your right to criticize. It would probably be better to try to resolve an issue before potentially inflicting damage on a business, but that is up to the individual. People who have a negative experience at a business are much more likely to post a negative review compared with the likelihood of happy clients posting positive reviews. Most people who have a positive experience do not post glowing reviews on the internet. That is not a criticism, just an observation. On the one hand, people who have a positive experience at a business and are appreciative and have paid for services rendered really shouldn't be expected to post a positive review. On the other hand, these are the people who have the power to help dilute the effects of unfair and angry negative reviews and help a small business survive and grow. My business has a few negative reviews, all but one are from non-clients. The one client's dog actually improved with the treatment administered after multiple other attempts elsewhere failed. Obviously, you can't make everybody happy. A couple of days ago, an individual called and demanded that we prescribe a medication for her pet parrot. The receptionist politely told her that we do not treat pet birds and that we also cannot legally prescribe medication for a patient we have not examined. After this person then verbally excoriated the receptionist and one of our technicians with a flurry of expletives, she vowed to "trash" us "all over the internet" and "get all her friends to do it also". She did-in fact-trash us on google. Later that day, she repeated the same behavior with a veterinary clinic down the road, leaving them with a one-star damning review as well. I investigated her other reviews of local small businesses over the past few years. There are a lot. Seventy percent of them are one-star with very negative commentary. She trashed her own doctor, the hospital that cared for her after a car accident-related injury, several pharmacies, an ice cream parlor, a taxi cab company, a car rental business and a few others. Veterinary Medicine remains in crisis mode since COVID hit us. The demand for veterinary services has vastly outstripped the supply of professionals available to meet that demand. The percentage of angry and abusive clients has been increasing and this does contribute to staffing shortages (people are leaving the profession), reduction of services (some hospitals have limited or eliminated emergency services) and the worsening problem of su***de in the profession. The veterinary profession cannot stop people from being abusive, threatening and vindictive. These individuals are far outnumbered by pet owners who are understanding, appreciative and gracious. I don't have the answer to this issue, but I would encourage anyone who reads this to think twice before lashing out at a veterinary professional (this includes everyone-receptionists, caretakers, technicians, doctors). For the majority of you who wouldn't even consider acting this way, particularly if you are happy with your veterinary care, please consider taking that little extra time and effort into posting something positive about your experience. Thanks.
