I don't want to raise the temperature here - I really don't - but SAGA has actually gone to extreme measures to cause trouble for Dr. Droke. There has been ill will ever since they held a rigged board meeting to exclude her from the board not long after they had appointed her (to the board). They wanted her to work like a junior employee and do what she was told and not ask questions. They particularly seemed not to want questions on financial matters, probably not because they had anything to hide but because they saw it as none of her business. This was all going on while she was still at SAGA, and was in fact the reason for her leaving. They want to employ a professional vet but don't want them to use their professionalism. Read the story of Thomas à Beckett - this approach doesn't work. SAGA has had low success in recruiting and retaining quality vets, and inability to pay a high salary is only a part of the reason - their management style has been key.

I have seen the text of Dr. Droke's letters to the Vet Board, as have many others, and they are all directed at specific breaches of law that she has become aware of. SAGA has undeniably been operating illegally and that will do them no good in their present application to have their own vet. In fact, I suspect it may incline the Vet Board quite strongly against their application. They might be prepared to "turn a blind eye" in certain cases of technical breach where SAGA had no option in order to get the job done, but with a qualified vet close by the Board will probably be quite intolerant of law breaking, especially where it has led to unnecessary animal suffering.

I am assuming in this that people understand what "breaking the law" in this context actually means. It means using out-of-date drugs which not only may have lost their effectiveness but can become poisonous, and in-expert people attempting to make diagnoses and formulate treatments when they simply don't have the knowledge base to do it. If being a vet were so easy that anyone could do it, why is there such a long period of study, exams and experience required, in all countries? It doesn't mean technicalities like not charging GST or maybe fiddling the books - we are talking about serious matters concerning animal welfare. Only recently a dog was mis-diagnosed, given inappropriate and seriously out-of-date drugs, and sent home. The owner took the animal to the real vet a couple of days later but by then it was too late. Had SAGA not pretended that they could treat the dog it may well still have been alive today. THIS is what Dr. Laurie as the only representative of the veterinary profession around here is determined to stop.