The recent case of Loki, a healthy dog which was allegedly euthanised by a vet at a Mount Pleasant clinic, has sparked much outrage in the animal lovers community, leading them and many others to question the vet's and clinic's practices.
One prominent member of the animal lover community has come forward to air a slightly different set of views though.
Unethical vets in the minority
While many have vilified the vet involved in the case, Derrick Tan, president of non-profit Voices For Animals wrote, based on his own experience, "not all vets are unethical".
Tan recalled receiving calls from a senior vet from Mount Pleasant, who consulted animal shelters for advice when customers wanted to euthanise their dogs due to "aggression issues".
The vet asked if the shelters could take the dogs in, and both dogs that were originally meant to be euthanised subsequently found new homes.
Tan shared an encounter he had with a clinic, which he felt was truly unethical.
Tan had donated his dog's blood to the clinic, but the clinic ended up charging him for a blood transfusion for a rescue dog of his that underwent surgery.
However, Tan believes such individuals and incidents remain in the minority.
"Trust me, they are really very good and ethical vets around, just a minority who puts business before compassion, but well, we are in the reality state that $$$ mainly comes first, but really, there are many good vets around."
"Only bad owners"
In Loki's case, Tan said that the blame should lie on the adopters.
He gave several reasons why adopters might choose to euthanise the dog instead of consult the shelter or animal welfare group.
Sometimes, adopters feel embarrassed to return their adopted dogs to the shelter, Tan believes.
He shared how certain adopters might choose euthanasia as a convenient method to get rid of the animal.
"Clearly it’s the ego issues of people that they don’t want to be embarrassed and shamed about their action, hence illogical and fast method comes in which is euthanasia. That’s so wrong."
This is something Nee Soon GRC MP and Acres founder Louis Ng previously reiterated in a Facebook post, where he called for stricter regulations when pet owners wish to put down their pets.
Additionally, Tan stated that the reasoning and stories adopters and pet owners share with the vets is unknown to the rest of the public, and speculated that these owners could have played up instances of aggression in the dog in order to put it down.
"So for cases of euthanasia due to aggression, I believed the adopters should be at fault, you never know what kind of story they might had shared with the vets on how dangerous blar blar blar the dog was and the words from the adopter can resulted the animal to put their lives at stake."
Ultimately, "There’s no bad dogs, only bad owners," Tan believes.
Wait for AVS' investigation
He urged everyone to have more compassion for the dogs, and for the shelters who rescued these animals off the streets and treat them like their own children.
Tan also discouraged netizens from "seeking for justice" and jumping to conclusions before the Animal & Veterinary Services has concluded their investigation.
"I really hope that Nparks and AVS can come out with a statement of what really happened and giving all the concern parties a favourable answer instead of getting all of us jumping and seeking for justice which it could be done by the relevant authority.
So meanwhile, we can only wait for the investigation, and hopefully the AWG involved can have a response of why and how Loki has been euthanised especially during a circuit breaker period. Just like the platinium dog club saga.
Rip Loki"
Angry netizens have previously started a witch hunt of sorts calling out and identifying the adopters, whose faces were censored in the original Facebook post which aired the incident about Loki.
The Facebook post was deleted after Loki's adopters reported the whistleblower to the police for doxxing.
You can read Tan's full post here.
Shanmugam speaks out
Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam came forward on May 13 to air his views on the incident.
He shared a personal letter from a vet, who said that the act of euthanising an animal was not something professionals took lightly.
Although Shanmugam acknowledged the anger animal lovers felt, he urged them not to take justice into their own hands without the full story from the vet's side.
He also pointed out that the incident is still being investigated by the AVS.
Top photo from Theng Wei Gan and Derrick Tan / FB