Now we all know how, with the arrival of the internet and social media, all sorts of misinformation, conspiracy theories and utter bizarre nonsense is allowed to run rife and unchecked and is leading to, in my lil’ old opinion, the vast majority of the world’s social problems at this point. Not least of these is all the doubt being cast upon science, especially medical science and the scientists and practitioners themselves.
So in this post, I shall endeavour to set some of these crazy assertions to rights. I think one of the subjects that seems to come up again and again is that most or ALL vets are working in the profession for one thing and ONE THING ONLY: THE MONEYYYYYYYY. Check out any comments section of a post bashing a vet and you will see the “only in it for the money” theory alive and well out there.
And here it is folks, from the horse-doctor’s mouth. I’m going to let you all in on a BIG secret that THEY (you know, BIG THEY) don’t want you to know. Here it is…….
They nailed it! Of COURSE we are all just in it to make money. Oodles and oodles of the stuff. Can anyone ever really have enough? We can’t! As kids in school, our first thought when asked what we wanted to do when we grew up was: “What can I do to make a maximum blinder of a salary, preferably involving swindling the general public for added enjoyment?” It was then that we began to plot: spending our senior school years working our butts off to achieve high enough final grades for a chance at getting into vet school and once there, naturally it all fell into place. Between boring classes about Anatomy, Physiology, Infectious Diseases and the like (yawn), our real training involved courses such as, How to manipulate unsuspecting pet lovers into parting with their hard-earned cash by making up fake diseases 101 and Scaring pet parents into agreeing to bogus yet expensive procedures on healthy pets for maximum profit 201 and everyone’s favourite, Annual vaccination as a lucrative scam to induce endless chronic illnesses as well as autism in male ferrets and West Highland White Terriers. (Masters course)
We also had weekly extravagant parties thrown by pet food and drug companies who let us in on which products to sell to keep pets in a permanent state of sub-optimal health that we could then exploit with bogus cures and treatments. There is literally no profession as crooked and conniving and we get to do it while pretending to care about your pets that you are all idiotic enough to care about. Candy from babies, as they say.
Ok, enough already. All of the above is stuff I’ve read or heard directed at vets- don’t think for a moment I had to invent any of it for entertainment purposes, dear reader. But like so many conspiracy theories that rely on very large numbers of people all being in on an evil plot and supposedly all keeping the secret, when you think about it in the clear light of day, applying logic and common sense, doesn’t it seem just a teeny bit unlikely?
Most vets could have studied for far more lucrative careers had money been our motivation in career choice. Dare I suggest that we all do deserve to be compensated for a job very very few other people can do that involves long hours and heaps of stress? Despite many of us feeling awkward about actually charging money for our service and care (Imposter Syndrome is HUGE in vets), we do actually need to be paid for it, I’m afraid. We have families and mortgages just like everyone else. I guess, now that I think about it, we ARE actually in it for some money after all…but just know, we would probably make more money doing something other than clinical practice if we did not have a strong vocation that keeps us here! (And these days the retention rate for young vets is plummeting alarmingly…I sometimes wonder if there will be any left in a decade if the trend continues!)
This isn’t to say there are not issues in our sector pushing up costs and prices and corporatization of many clinics will have the inevitable outcome that things become more profit-driven and thus expensive. (there’s another whole post on THAT to come) Our jobs have become very demanding in the past decade with massive advances in knowledge, tech and innovation coupled with the public’s demands and expectations along with closer emotional bonds with pets than ever before. Owning and running a veterinary practice while still being a vet day to day has become extremely difficult and there are fewer and fewer of us willing or able to do it, so it is a perfect storm of factors that we are all caught up in right now. Please be kind to your vets as they are very rarely the ones setting the prices or profiting directly these days. We are still relatively one of the most poorly-remunerated of all professions, believe it or not!
Oh and PS: If you are a pet owner, know that this is probably the most hurtful accusation you can throw our way. We take it VERY personally. Please don’t. I refer you to my previous post about being Nasty or Nice! (Hint: be nice!)
PPS. Get your pet insured. It costs a lot to treat them for illness these days because veterinary medicine is advancing at a rapid pace, we have equipment, procedures and technology nobody even dreamed of back in the days of good old James Herriot, who would trade his services for a cup of tea and a chat. Life is expensive. Plan for it!
Subscribe and when I’ve finished counting all my oodles of cash, I’ll add you to the list and send you some more life-changing clog posts straight to your email inbox.