It shouldn't happen at a vets BBC1 22 July 2010

Well, what did you make of it? Personally it came across to me like another docu-hatchet job as apart from the inflated invoices which I've talked about before and will talk about again in a mo, the footage of cruelty appeared to be straw grabbing trying to sensensionalise the odd occassion when something went wrong. I'm not saying that spinning a cat round by it's scruff whilst giving an injection is right (and that vet was struck off), nor am I saying that the joking of the cat who was fighting back when his Pre-Med had worn off is acceptable. I'm certainly not saying that striking a dog after major surgery is normal, but nor is it common and the poor Red Setter fighting to catch his breath was very upsetting indeed but if that's the worst they can come up with then things really aren't that bad, I was expecting real cruelty on a major scale but what I saw was sensationalised errors made by trainee staff that should never have been in that situation in the first place.
However, when it comes to money the new "branded" vet "business" does have some serious let downs. It was pretty much admitted that if an animal was brought in limping, rather than go for the rest and anti inflammatories and see what happens they would jump straight in with thousands of pounds worth of tests - that has been going on for a while and we see a huge difference in the vet bills that come through rescue with those that have come from a rural old fashioned vet and those that come from the big "chains" such a MediVet and VetsNow. The new rule that you must pay BEFORE the animal receives treatment is also on the increase and I'm not at all suprised that insurance claims were being falsley lodged in order to gain as much money as possible from one single treatment.
The vet profession has certainly changed over the years, especially in the last 5 years as many of the rural vets have been taken over by big businesses and I've talked before about how animals are held to ransom pending full payment which is most definately wrong and bearing in mind all vets take an oath to treat all animals the money really shouldn't be the first priority, in fact I think it's illegal to do so under RCVS rules (maybe someone could clarify that for me).
So let me know your thoughts on the programme, if you missed it I guess it's on iPlayer so take a look at see what you think