Bodhi

David from Silverdale

8/8/18

Dear Neighbours,

This, I hope, will be my last posting on this matter. As you all know one can be consumed by something like this.

First I want to thank all of you for posting your support and well-wishes. It means an awful lot to me knowing that others care so much. Bodhi would have greeted each and every one of you with a gentle leg rub.

This morning, I wrote the Silverdale Vet Hospital with an offer to end this matter. I suggested that if they were to make an anonymous donation in Bodhi’s name to a cat rescue charity, I would consider this matter closed. In my mind such an action on their part would honour Bodhi’s memory and be a genuine acknowledgement of their responsibility in his death. Later in the day, when I found out that a reporter from the Rodney Times wanted to talk to me, I immediately wrote back to the Vet and said that the donation did not have to anonymous and that I would give full credit to them for it on Neighbourly and the Rodney Times. I was reaching out to them and trying to be fair. They told me they would get back to me this evening.

I now have their response. I am including it in its entirety below. I am also including my reply to them. You are all intelligent people and you can draw your own conclusions. I will talk to the Rodney Times tomorrow if they still want to, but otherwise as I said above I consider this matter closed.

For the record, I will file a notification with the Vet Council, because it seems to me that this vet practice needs to held accountable for deficiencies in both their vet practices and their business practices.

Sincerely
David Pauleen


On Aug 8, 2018, at 17:59, Silverdale Vet Hospital <silverdale@vethospital.co.nz> wrote:

Hi David,
Following on from our emails today around Bodhi's care; in summary, Bodhi arrived at our clinic, after his very first ever car ride, into an environment he had never been before.

He was examined and found to be in good health, but he had a small swelling and wound on his front leg. After minimal handling to shave the area, Bodhi had stopped breathing and there was no pulse. All efforts to resuscitate him failed. Stress due to a new environment and being handled by people he wasn't used to, even though the utmost care was taken, in combination9 with a sudden onset of a possible massive heart attack, resulted in his untimely and unfortunate death.

We offered a post mortem to be done, to find out as much information as possible as to what contributed to his death; however the offer was declined.

We are sincerely sorry, for the death of your dearly loved cat, Bodhi. However, it was a situation beyond our control and it was certainly not a direct cause of any fault on our part.

We have been in contact with our insurance company, Police, the Veterinary Council and an independent lawyer, in regards to your suggestion on making a $5000 donation, to a cat charity of your choice to allow you to let this matter rest. On their advice we are declining to make any such donations, as it would be unethical and inappropriate. They also advised that any public criticism of the vet and/or clinic would be viewed as potentially defamatory.

We are happy to comply with any suggestion or recommendation from the Veterinary Council of New Zealand in regards to the complaint you filed.

Please contact us if there is anything further we can do to resolve this matter.
Nicole

Vets at Animates Silverdale
Veterinary Hospital Group
2200 East Coast Road
Silverdale
My reply

Thank you for your reply, Nicole.

I appreciate the apology, although it only comes after I initiated communication with you.

It is certainly disingenuous for you to claim Bodhi’s death was outside of your control and you have no fault in the matter. Your vet was in direct control of the situation: no one else. If Bodhi was a person, this would be classified as a wrongful death And the police would be investigating.

And I honestly don’t think threats are going to serve you well in the court of public opinion. Lawyers, police, etc it is really unfortunate that you felt you had to go this route.

Also you do not explain what is unethical about making a named or anonymous donation to a charity in Bodhi’s name. Probably, because there is no satisfactory reason. But we will let people draw their own conclusions.

Regards
David

Sent from my iPad