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Ever wonder what happens with the veterinarian takes your pet into the back room for treatment? The reality is - if something goes wrong, at many hospitals, it's almost impossible to find out what really happened.

My dog, Mr. Mister, didn't deserve to suffer. Instead, after trusting VCA Animal Specialty Group in Glendale with his care, he came home with severe breathing issues and injuries consistent with brain damage and trachea damage, including choking/coughing every time he leaned down to drink water or eat, and a totally different demeanor - with extreme sensitivity around his neck.

VCA's own records documented breathing difficulties, but the entry-level intern treating him told her supervisor that I "went crazy". His struggles to breath were documented in his records, along with an x-ray that showed hypo-inflated lungs and a restricted trachea. I witnessed it as well, and when I begged the veterinarian (who I understood was a specialist) to do something, she said he was breathing fine (despite a vet tech documenting otherwise) and told me she couldn't do anything without permission from her supervisor who wasn't in the hospital, so it would have to wait until the following morning. Despite his documented breathing difficulties, the records indicate that he was not placed in oxygen until the following morning — more than 12 hours later.

That was when I first learned that when VCA Animal Specialty Group said they were transferring Mr. Mister to the Internal Medicine Specialty Group, his case was instead being managed day-to-day by a rotating intern. Although a board-certified specialist was listed as supervising his case, she never spoke with me directly, despite my efforts to make myself available to her. 

When I took VCA ASG to court, a Los Angeles judge dismissed all of the claims related to

• VCA ASG's misleading marketing,
• VCA ASG's failure to advise pet parents that inexperienced interns manage the care for many of their most critical patients,
• VCA ASG's practice of using our pets to provide on-the-job training and practice for interns to learn - while charging pet parents prices that in many cases meet or exceed the prices of other privately-owned hospitals who actually assign board-certified specialists for critical cases.

Several of the intern's responses to my basic questions included "well he's doing better than the other dog with CKD " and "because Dr. Collins said so". These replies left me feeling concerned and uncertain, as they did not align with the level of informed, specialist expertise I had believed I would be receiving.

In addition, VCA ASG

• advised me before I admitted Mr. Mister that he was "severely dehydrated", and encouraged me to admit him because of this, while documenting in his records that his gums were "pink and moist" and that his skin tent (a sign of dehydration) was normal 
• refused to allow me to see Mr. Mister for almost 24 hours, while misrepresenting and concealing Mr. Mister's condition during that time, but allowing other pet parents to see their pets

I’ve since heard from other pet parents whose cases seem very similar to mine in the fundamentals — bringing their pets in at a critical time, later learning that their pet’s condition was more serious than they initially understood, believing that a specialist would be directly and actively involved in their care plan, and then bringing their pet home with shocking, long-term health issues (and in some cases, death).

Why did the court dismiss concerns before trial, when they impact so many pets and pet parents? 

Because in California, pets are legally considered property, like a lamp or a chair. That means if a veterinary hospital — even a massive corporate chain — injures or kills your animal, the law often limits your “damages” to the pet’s replacement cost. Emotional loss, animal suffering, and animal harm are often dismissed - especially if the animal doesn't die (if you're lamp still works, why should the lamp repair shop replace it?)

And here’s what’s worse: VCA ASG in Glendale clearly markets “board-certified specialists” but often hands critical cases to inexperienced interns - without telling clients. California law doesn’t require disclosure when an intern will be handling your pet’s care, all while one of their administrative managers publicly published on LinkedIn that they cut staffing costs by 20%, and brought in $25 MILLION dollars in one year.

Corporate policies that cut costs and overload staff can put animals at risk — yet there is no real way to hold the parent company accountable.

Human healthcare has FAR more standards, checks and balances and consequences when things go wrong, than veterinary healthcare

And unlike in human healthcare, there are very few standards of care for the industry as a whole, and very few laws to ensure that minimum care standards are met. This isn’t just my story — it’s a system failure that affects every pet owner in California. If it can happen to Mister, it can happen to your pet and family member too.

Police, the SPCA and other agencies often refused to get involved in abuse cases when they involve veterinary hospitals

Had anyone other than a veterinary hospital tied something around Mr. Mister's neck so tightly that it caused difficulty breathing for hours, and then refused to get help when he noticeably struggled to breath, all while preventing me from seeing him and concealing his condition, they could and likely would be prosecuted for animal abuse. But despite witnesses, documentation and basic human decency, somehow, veterinarians and the corporations that own them appear to be virtually immune from animal abuse and neglect claims.

It's my opinion, based on this experience and the many stories other pet parents have shared with me, that veterinarians in California are held to a different, LOWER standard than the rest of us as it relates to animal care, animal abuse, and animal neglect.

That's why corporations are buying up veterinary hospitals - it's a low risk, highly profitable investment for them. And that's contributing to even higher costs for veterinary care.

We’re calling on California lawmakers to close the veterinary immunity loophole for corporations, so that corporate veterinary hospitals can no longer violate laws, ignore common sense standards of care, and hide behind the loophole that helps them get richer while our pets are harmed.

Some ideas members of our community have recommended include:

• Reclassifying companion animals as more than property and give them status as members of the family, allowing families to recover emotional distress damages in negligence and malpractice cases.
• Holding corporate veterinary chains accountable when company policies directly cause harm.
• Expand Lizzie’s Law (CA Bus. & Prof. Code § 4829.5) or establish a new law to require written disclosure and informed consent if an intern, student, or unlicensed person will handle significant portions of an animal’s care.
• When interns are leading client communication, require that there be an on-site, clear avenue for care concerns to be addressed with a veterinary supervisor in a timely fashion, so care concerns and dangers do not go unchecked.
• Require cameras in treatment rooms, and ensure that camera footage is stored for a designated period of time, to ensure transparency of care and ensure that veterinarians themselves are not the only authors of patient records -a practice that currently limits recourse as oftentimes, records are incomplete when care concerns are raised.

California families deserve to know who is treating their pets — and to have real legal protections when corporate cost-cutting puts animals at risk. Sign this petition to demand our lawmakers take action now.

Together, we can make sure no other family goes through what Mr. Mister — and so many others — have endured.

Pets are family, not property. We’re building a nationwide movement to protect pets over profits and push for stronger legal protections.

✦ Want to do more? Join the movement at PetParents4Change.com - we’ll keep you updated on ways to protect pets and push for change together.