To: A Boy who said to his mum that "Veterinary Ethics at Murdoch University is a very boring subject"
BLACK SHEEP IN THE PROFESSION
"Sign these AVA (Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority) forms to certify that you have had implanted the microchip in the puppies I will be selling. From September 1, 2007, every puppy sold in Singapore must be microchipped before sale," the dog breeder gave me a written list of microchipped numbers.
The AVA form had the following particulars needed to be certified by the veterinarian:
MICROCHIP DETAILS:
1. Microchip Number
2. Date of chip implantation.
3. Chip implanted by:
All I had to do was to copy the microchipped numbers onto the forms and certified that I had implanted them at a fictitious date. If I don't do it, there will be other veterinarians who will oblige. This breeder had 3 veterinarians who had solicited business from him.
There are many ethical issues involved in servicing breeders. This story is one example of the ethical issues I encountered.
I used to service all the big breeders and numerous pet shops in Singapore in 2005 because of an unusual situation in that they lost their vaccine suppliers (believed to be two) whom they bought vaccines wholesale and vaccinated their own dogs.
However, in 2006 and 2007, young and unsuspicious veterinarians and an investor of veterinary clinic solicited business from the breeders. The breeders now had bargaining power and were able to get what they wanted.
However, there was a breeder who hedged his bets by engaging my services regularly.
I knew from my research that he would bid the pricing of one professional veterinarian against another to get the lowest price. I was now getting the crumbs of his puppy vaccination as I could be overpriced in my Caesarean sections. The younger vets charged as low as $150 - $200 per Caesarean section while I was already charging more. He started asking for injectable drugs which he could not obtain himself and I had to say no. Well, there are other veterinarians who are more flexible.
He was a big breeder and knew that veterinarians who desired his patronage would need to be flexible and cheap. Big corporations all over the world do it all the time to bring down their expenses.
If you read widely financial articles and other books, you would know that many big corporations use child labour, destroy the environment, compromise the integrity of professional accountants and lawyers, Chief Executive Officers and other means to achieve their aims of being profitable.
The more the service provider salivates at the prospect of big volumes at low cost, the more demanding the big business is of them, to the extent of compromising their integrity and making them lose their professional licence.
Now, how do I resolve this problem? Sign the forms to certify that I had implanted the microchips. This was false certification and ethically, if not legally wrong. The big corporations exploit the desperation of the service provider to get business.
In my case, I must be desperate. Otherwise, why did I still drive up to his farm to vaccinate a very small number of puppies per week? A young veterinarian was doing the majority of his vaccinations and his work. He could have asked her to sign the forms. How would the regulators know?
"Trust me" is the common statment of people who want their self interest served even if the professional licence may be revoked by the misconduct of the service provider. When you hear "Trust Me," you ought to be very careful.
In this case, I told an intermediary to return the AVA forms to this breeder and to tell him that I would not be signing nor doing business with him.
The breeder phoned me: "Those forms I asked you to sign were the puppies you vaccinated!" This was an intelligent and successful breeder but yet he made such a stupid statement. Should I capitulate? That means signing blank cheques. He obviously had no respect for the veterinary profession.
I had to be frank. "I did vaccinate the 5 puppies. But I did not microchip the puppies. So I will not be certifying that the chip was implanted by me."
Dealing with big business is not a win-win situation if the big business has no respect for the professionalism of the veterinarian. Unfortunately, there will always be black sheep in the profession who are willing to take risks to get their business. So, there should be no problem for the big breeders.
"The best veterinary clientele and those of the highest quality are the individual private pet owners" --- two well wishers advised me some time ago to get away from the big business. They were correct.
CONCLUSION:
I hope you will find Veterinary Ethics really interesting and very useful. Your mum has high hopes for you and misses you a lot.
If you can reduce your online gaming time, as all youths are addicted to and devote much more time to creating, reading and learning new craft and doing veterinary research, you will find that veterinary ethics is a fascinating subject as the big business world is quite devious and has no qualms compromising the ethical standards of a professional.
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