Vet nurses and former colleagues of Dr Marcus Tan lash decision to allow him to keep practising
Outraged former colleagues of a vet found guilty of unprofessional conduct for tasting a dog’s semen have lashed the decision to allow him to keep working with animals.
Police & Courts
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Horrified vet nurses and former colleagues of Dr Marcus Wei Sheng Tan have lashed the decision to not ban him from practising, saying it’s a “slap in the face” to his patients.
The five vet nurses – who have asked to remain anonymous – are outraged Dr Tan is still allowed to work with animals, with one saying she would never go back to the industry because of it.
Dr Tan faced disciplinary action in the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT) after complaints were raised by the Registrar of the Veterinary Surgeons Board.
Despite admitting to tasting a dog’s semen “out of sheer curiosity” and other shocking acts involving animals, Dr Tan was only slapped by the tribunal with a $5000 fine and restricted to providing veterinary treatment under indirect supervision.
He is now working at a new veterinary clinic on the Yorke Peninsula.
Vet nurses’ outrage
One vet nurse who worked with Dr Tan described him as “super odd,” saying he would frequently sit in cages with the dogs by himself.
The vet nurse said she found it “gut wrenching” that Dr Tan was allowed to keep practising.
“As a nurse our qualification is under direct supervision … but that’s very rarely the case,” she said.
“It’s such a loose term for them to use being under indirect supervision, so he has even less supervision than what a nurse does.”
The vet nurse said Dr Tan’s actions went against everything vets are supposed to do to protect animals.
“He is doing unspeakable acts to (animals) that cannot speak, how can you trust anybody like that?” she said.
Another vet nurse said she’s now left the industry, despite loving nursing because the whole experience just completely ruined it for her.
“I don’t get it,” she said of the decision.
The vet nurse said after hearing allegations from a colleague that Dr Tan was ingesting semen, she looked into it further before making a horrifying discovery.
“I cannot believe he got away with it,” she said.
“We just didn’t want him working with animals anymore.”
Another former colleague of Dr Tan’s said he worked with her at a different clinic after being fired from the first clinic for the vile acts.
“It still makes my skin crawl, it makes me mad now because he’s able to still work,” she said.
“I’m disappointed in the veterinary board, disappointed that he’s allowed to ‘care’ for pets, because he definitely doesn’t care for them. He doesn’t put anything forward for society.”
Another vet nurse who worked with Dr Tan said she was very shocked and upset to hear about the verdict and was left traumatised by the experience.
“We’re meant to be an advocate for our patients as well and doing that to the dogs is unacceptable behaviour,” she said.
“I just can’t believe he’s still practising.
“I just feel that the vet board doesn’t care about animals, the system doesn’t care about animals.”
Another vet nurse who worked with Dr Tan said she was disgusted to find out he had been hired by another breeding clinic.
Dr Tan’s SACAT outcome
The tribunal found Dr Tan’s conduct amounted to unprofessional conduct on four grounds, including an instance of when he consumed “less than 0.1 cubic millimetres of dog semen from a syringe”.
“You know, I did it mostly, you know, out of sheer curiosity, you know, of the, of its taste,” he told the tribunal.
“You know, in my mind, that, that because if there’s salt in there, is it going to taste salty? So, that was my main, sort of, motivation.”
The tribunal heard the practice manager at one clinic also allegedly found some disturbing images of dogs on Dr Tan’s phone, which he said he was sharing with his friends on WhatsApp because they were “interesting cases”.
She asked Dr Tan to delete the images due to patient confidentiality and police took no action due to lack of evidence, the tribunal was told.
Dr Tan was also found to have inappropriately touched animals in his care between August 2019 and September 2020.
Two further allegations involving the euthanasia of a sick puppy and a further incident of inappropriate touching were not found to be proved.
At the time of the allegations Dr Tan was practising in the field of animal reproduction, including artificial insemination.
He denied to the tribunal having any sexual attraction towards animals.
During the hearings, a petition signed by 17 people in the veterinary industry was provided to the tribunal, saying Dr Tan had displayed unprofessional, inappropriate and unethical behaviour.
Dr Tan had suggested the signatories were colluding to ruin his career, which the tribunal did not find any evidence of.
The vet nurses said this accusation was wild, with one saying she would have never been able to make up “disgusting” allegations like that, as they seemed unfathomable.
“We’re not ruining his career, he did that himself,” another said.
Dr Tan’s conditions will remain in place for five years and cannot be removed until he is assessed by a psychiatrist and approved by the board as “being medically fit to resume practice as an unrestricted veterinary surgeon”.
The Advertiser contacted the Veterinary Surgeons Board of South Australia for comment.
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