Florida animal hospital faces backlash
Animal hospitals share the same name, Skyway Animal Hospital
After nearly two years of nasty reviews online, hateful emails and negative social media posts, the staff at Skyway Animal Hospital didn’t think things could get any worse. Then came the voice mail.
One day last month, the veterinarian clinic received an after-hours voice mail containing threats of violence made against the clinic, its staff and their families.
“We have reported this to our local police, but there is little they can do,” said Martha Anne Merrill, marketing and social media director with Skyway Animal Hospital. “If an individual decided to act on their threat, our hope is that this person would figure out their mistake somewhere along the 1,000 mile trip to Florida.”
Located in St. Petersburg, Fla., the animal clinic has been operating out of its location — near the Skyway Bridge that connects St. Petersburg to Bradenton — for more than 50 years.
In late 2016, the clinic began receiving countless negative internet reviews on sites like Google and Facebook, as well as receiving terrible messages through Facebook and email.
“At first, we didn’t understand what was happening, there were so many of them and people were so angry,” said Merrill, noting a lot of the messages were racist in nature.
A quick Google search helped clarify things: Dr. Mahavir Rekhi, who owned a St. Catharines veterinary clinic with the same name, was facing discipline after video surfaced that depicted him choking and hitting animals in his care. He had his licence suspended and he was fined $10,000. While he was facing 16 counts related to animal cruelty, the Crown attorney opted to withdraw all criminal charges in November 2017.
“Our clinic was caught in the crossfire,”
said Merrill, noting she can understand people’s anger at Rekhi. “We are absolutely appalled by the mere thought of anyone abusing any animal, even more so within the confines of a clinical setting.”
What followed has been countless hours of staff time spent refuting negative online reviews from people who have never visited the clinic and responding back to people who send in angry emails.
“At first, I would spend a lot of time on the responses. I would be really friendly and point out that we were in Florida and not the clinic they were upset with. Most people would apologize after realizing their mistake and the majority of people removed their negative reviews. I’ve even became friends of sorts with a few of the people I’ve corresponded with,” said Merrill.
A strong online presence has become a great marketing tool for a lot of small businesses. While that’s great from a marketing standpoint, in trying to reach new customers, Merrill said their strong online presence is probably what helped people who were angry about the St. Catharines clinic find the Florida one.
Brock University Prof. Tony Volk has done a lot of research into bullying and said when it comes to online interactions, people often enjoy when they can do it in their presence of their peers. Leaving negative reviews in public spaces fills that requirement.
“Showing their anger online is easier than going to the place directly,” he said. “Targeted reviews are a really powerful tool for people looking to express their dissatisfaction.”
The way information is shared online can lead to some people ending up in an "echo chamber," where they receive only information that’s targeted to their interests pre-existing viewpoints.
“It allows people to hear more about the things they’re interested in, for example,” he said. “But they don’t always get an accurate representation of what’s actually happening.”
But people were so caught up in their outrage, they didn’t take the time to confirm the clinic they were directing their anger toward was the right one.
This isn’t the only example of this in recent times. When a Lexington, Va. restaurant turned away United States’ press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in June, many other restaurants across the country, and even one in Canada, reported receiving negative reviews, emails and phone calls.
Merrill said while she can understand people’s anger, she’s growing tired of having to deal with their outrage.
“It seems like every few months, there’s a new wave. Every time he’s in the news or there’s an update, it starts all over again,” she said.
The voice mail was the final straw.
“I just thought maybe if we told our story, it would stop. Or it could help people realize that the next time something like this happens and they want to go online to express their outrage, they make they get the right place,” said Merrill.