Two veterinary clinics in the Mid West-Gascoyne have reported abusive and disrespectful behaviour from clients when treating and caring for animals.
Geraldton’s Midwest Veterinary Centre and Carnarvon’s Coral Coast Veterinary Hospital have both taken to social media to share recent experiences with disrespectful clients.
On April 2, the Midwest Veterinary Centre posted a distressing video to Facebook from their CCTV cameras, showing staff allegedly being verbally abused.
The post has attracted about 46,000 views and 74 comments from the Geraldton community supporting the work of the local clinic.
In the video, a staff member can be seen conversing with two clients after handing over a package.
The centre said the staff member in the footage was one of the clinic’s owners.
The clients exit the frame of the footage before one of them allegedly throws a pot plant at the head of the practice owner.
The pot plant can be seen flying through the air, narrowly missing the head of the veterinary worker, and smashing against the wall.
In a post to Facebook, the vet centre said the altercation was “not the end of the week anyone needs”.
“Not happy with our service — no worries choose to go to a different vet. Not happy with our protocols — no worries choose to go to a different vet,” the clinic said.
“What isn’t acceptable — threats to our lives, threats to our children, threats to our staff. The flying pot missed one of our owners by mere inches.”
The vet clinic said the behaviour they experienced like what was shown in the footage was an example of why some clinics chose to shut their doors or refuse to offer after-hours services.
“This is why vets and nurses leave the industry in droves. Next time your animal needs help, there may not be a vet there for you,” their Facebook post stated.
“This is our reality, and we thank everyone that was present at the time for your support and our loyal customer support.”
The clinic also thanked the Geraldton police, who were contacted, and its staff.
Following this post to social media, Coral Coast Veterinary Hospital followed suit in a move to support their industry colleagues.
The hospital said it “watched in horror” when viewing the video posted by Midwest Veterinary Centre.
The Carnarvon-based practice said they had also been recently threatened by a client when someone said they “would cave their heads in”.
“It’s not the first time we’ve called the police, and we are not alone. Enough is enough,” Coral Coast Veterinary Hospital posted.
In their post to Facebook, Coral Coast made clear vets worried about the animals in their care, left their own families and pets to care for others, and tried their best to help those who could not “speak, point or explain pain”.
“We are expected to be doctors, surgeons, dentists, counsellors and miracle workers at the same time, in multiple species at different life stages,” they said.
“Vets work long hours, often alone, with limited resources, especially in regional and remote clinics.”
Coral Coast asked people to “just be kind. We are human too”.
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