‘Client abuse is a huge issue’: Veterinarian suicide rate hits four times Australia’s average

Vets are dying by suicide at a rate multiple-times the national average and a new investigation reveals it’s abusive pet owners driving the tragic trend.

Adelaide vet Sophie Putland died by suicide in Melbourne in 2021 after a ‘campaign of abuse by a client’. Picture: Facebook

Increasing incidence of vet abuse is contributing to spiralling rates of suicide and driving burnt-out practitioners from the profession, industry insiders say.

According to the Australian Veterinary Association, vets have one of the highest rates of suicide at about four-times the national average – or, around one suicide every 12 weeks.

Adelaide’s Animal Emergency Centre general manager David Mason said the pressure being felt by many vets was immense with widespread staff shortages as well as increased demand and expectations.

“Pets have become more a part of our family … people are looking for a higher level of care and intervention not dissimilar to what they’d expect if they went to a medical facility,” the emergency specialist with more than two decade experience said.

“Vets are having to … be the oncologist, the surgeon, the dentist, the pathologist to make sure pets are getting the care they need.”

Dr Mason said vet abuse was a growing problem.

“Unfortunately (the abuse) is getting worse … I think it reflects our society; our clients, our pet owners are less tolerant and have a high level of expectation,” he said.

In January Clare Valley Veterinary Services’ Jamestown clinic announced it would shut, blaming a shortage of vet industry professionals and the “social and emotional toll of the negative backlash, verbal abuse, and online vitriol”.

“We know there is a significant shortage of practitioners … even our vet schools are trying to recruit vets,” Dr Mason said.

At the same time pet ownership is soaring with estimates almost two thirds of South Australians have at least one pet – national figures suggest there are 15,000 vets to care for 30.4 million pets, excluding horses, livestock and wildlife.

Adelaide journalist and podcaster Caroline Winter has spent the past 12 months researching for a new independent podcast series, Sick as a Dog, which explores the industry’s “complex issues”.

The first episode, released during the week, revisits the tragic death of Adelaide vet Sophie Putland, who died aged 33 by suicide in September 2021 while working as a locum in Melbourne, after a “campaign of abuse by a client”.

“(For Sophie), it was the straw that broke the camel’s back … every single (industry) person I spoke to knew not just one but two or three people who had taken their life,” Winter said.

“The client abuse is a huge issue … whether that is verbal, physical, online or trolling; you mix finance with emotion (of pet owners) and suddenly it is explosive, vet care is expensive and the cost of care is not well understood by the general population.”

Sophie’s devastated parents Kate and Gary Putland, who feature in the podcast, describe their daughter’s struggle with client abuse.

“You wouldn’t do it to a human specialist, you wouldn’t go into an orthopaedic surgeon and start screaming at them … but for some reason it seems to be OK for the vet,” Mrs Putland said.

#Go to www.sickasadogpodcast.com.au