The animal doctors are in town!

I am a frustrated Veterinarian.

Thanks to the influence of Dr. Jose “Pepe” Linda, Dean/ Secretary and now Congressman Sonny Escudero and James Herriot, author of the classic “All Creatures Great and Small”, I spent many years in UP Diliman aspiring to one day be part of the proudly independent community of veterinarians.

In those days, being a “vet” was almost like opting to be in the Marines or being a priest. “Fancy” or “profitable” were not the words associated with the profession. From the time you entered the College to the time you join the ranks of the brave and the few, it was all work, it was messy, usually stinky but boy did they love it.

So when my friends at BMEG Feeds, Cathy Sunga and Eugene Mende, who is also the current president of PVMA talked about the 79th convention in Bacolod City, I was all ears and eager to get involved. But I was quite surprised and very much honored to be invited as one of the speakers before an audience of nearly 1,200 participants.

Somehow, even though I was not destined to become a vet, the privilege to be part of such an important occasion rekindles a long forgotten passion. 

As part of my preparation each time I speak at conventions, I make it a habit to “do the rounds” and determine what concerns the audience may have and try my best to incorporate those issues in my presentation.

As one of the speakers at the 79th annual convention of the Philippine Veterinary Medical Association or PVMA, I did my rounds immediately and the stuff I dug up or solicited were quite interesting.

As far as the profession or the practice is concerned, this year’s affair is apparently a deviation from the way past events were conducted. Gone are the sexy product models that wore slinky outfits and even the two-day program is all business.

This new-found “morality” or “all business-mindedness” is certainly the trend now. Even car shows or motoring event organizers have shunned the practice of hiring sexy models as a way of recognizing the dignity of women, plus the fact that parading half-naked girls have nothing to do with the business and disrespects the audience and enthusiasts. Sometimes we copy practices from other countries that simply have no place and no relevance in the marketplace. 

Whether it is a result of the new “moral” atmosphere introduced by the P-Noy administration or because of the young leadership of the PVMA, several participants have pointed out that this year is all about “empowering” veterinarians particularly provincial and city veterinary officers. To emphasize the point of “empowerment”, the organizers and leaders of PVMA brought in two of the top motivational speakers in the Philippines, namely, Francis Kong and Anthony Pangilinan.

Knowing the fact that both Anthony Pangilinan and Francis Kong are leading mentors on Leadership, you have to ask: Why Leadership?

Well, looking back to the past five years and 2010-2011, how often do veterinary practitioners feature prominently or positively in the news? Most of the coverage that city veterinarians get were whenever they showed up at the public market to confiscate double dead meat.

We’ve had problems about rabies outbreaks in provinces, concerns with foot and mouth disease relative to illegal importation of meat from foreign sources, but no one in the field of veterinary medicine seems to have come out of the closet and become the image model for the profession.

What I did learn talking to participants and other sources is that most provincial or municipal veterinarians act with deference to private practitioners, clinicians and especially politicians. Rather than conduct themselves with distinctive pride as practitioners, many have fallen into the pit of thinking like government employees or holding on to a dream of one day migrating and working as a farm consultant abroad.

To top it all, most LGU connected veterinarians have been infected with the mindset that if there is no budget, nothing can be done. Clearly, life for most has become a matter of procedure and not initiative, compliance and not leadership.

So, Anthony, Francis and I will certainly have our hands full trying to make 1,200 college trained, board certified, government licensed professionals that they need to delete their past internal operating program and download all they can on leadership from the two experts and then correlate that with the business and media applications I will be teaching them entitled “From EQ to GQ.”

As complicated as all that may sound, the bottom line is that all veterinarians in the Philippines simply have to remind themselves of the fact that the Philippines is predominantly an agriculture based country. Agriculture contributes a minimum of 20 to 25 percent of the country’s total income and a large part of the industry is about farm animals, without mentioning high value domestic animals such as dogs, cats, birds, and game fowls as well as exotics.

All these require and rely on the competence and proactive professionalism of veterinary doctors and professionals.

Outside of agriculture and high value or exotic pets, veterinary professionals and practitioners play a vital role in the management and control of urban-based animals and the life threatening diseases they may carry.

Just ask any parent or neighbor who has gone through expensive intervention treatment for rabies or leptospirosis, and we will all realize that it would be cheaper as well as beneficial to all if provincial or municipal veterinarians proactively managed and controlled the population of cats, dogs and rats in our community.

Finally if progress and modernization will come into the field, the people in the best position to introduce these are the veterinary professionals. The day you take pride in your self is the day others will be proud of you.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]