Debates around the veterinary industry continue to rage as veterinary support staff and nurses, forever caught in the crossfire of abuse and accusations of heartlessness or money-grubbing, are once again not recognized (‘The vet put it as: if you care, you pay’: who really profits from sick pets?, 6 April).
I believed I had found my calling when I qualified as a Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN), but the stress and thanklessness of the job eventually overwhelmed me and I quit before the resulting depression, anxiety and associated eating disorder finished me off. My hourly pay was significantly less as an experienced RVN than I was earning just months later as a garbage collector, and most vet support staff only receive minimum wage.
Emptying bins is hard, unattractive, potentially dangerous work, and us garbage workers deserve every penny of their wages and more, but after doing both jobs, I find it terrible that I was worth less to a large veterinary company than I was to was a smaller board. -owned company as a manual worker.
A company with a high turnover can certainly afford to pay its support staff properly. But alas, it is more profitable to exploit the largely female workforce, socially conditioned to believe that care work is their duty for which they should not expect good pay. A workforce that will endure quietly deteriorating conditions in inherently stressful roles until they burn out and leave, while the cycle continues as more naive, well-intentioned animal lovers replace them.
I agree: clients deserve transparency about treatment options and prices; vets deserve to do their job without fear of abuse; and the massive corporate groups that dominate the UK veterinary industry deserve to be held accountable for their profiteering. But we must not forget to also seek justice for the overworked, underpaid, overlooked yet indispensable veterinary nurses and support staff.
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