Sadness behind the smile THE
WORKING as a vet to help sick animals might on the surface seem to be one of the most idyllic and rewarding careers imaginable. Yet as Peter Wright, star of TV’s The Yorkshire Vet, knows, the job’s pressures drive many in this admired profession to depression – and some to take their own lives.
The suicide rate among British veterinary surgeons is an incredible four times higher than average, Peter reveals in his new autobiography, while a shocking 40 per cent of them have considered killing themselves at some point. Not surprisingly there is a 24-hour mental health vet helpline.
It’s a subject Peter knows all too well about from personal experience. His best friend since university, fellow vet Mark, who hid his depression under a jovial exterior, hanged himself aged 52 in 2009.
Peter has also suffered from depression as did his late boss Alf Wight, aka celebrated All Creatures Great And Small vet and author James Herriot, who in the 1960s suffered a nervous breakdown.
Tragically their senior colleague Donald Sinclair (Siegfried Farnon in the books and TV series) killed himself in later life with pills used to euthanise dogs.
Peter, 62, works as senior partner in the veterinary practice in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, that was the setting for Herriot’s heart-warming All Creatures Great And Small semifictional memoirs and TV dramas and which Peter joined as a young vet in the early 1980s.
His own life as a 21st-century vet forms the background to the popular Channel 5 series which has viewing figures of 2million. It appears that viewers can’t get enough of the behind-the-scenes animal stories of Skeldale Veterinary Centre.
But why should depression – and even the urge to take one’s life – be more likely to afflict a vet, someone with a job many people would envy?
“Many people think being a vet must be in some way an idyllic profession but there are so many pressures,” he says. “Suppressing your problems, limited financial gain, long hours and vets having access to lethal drugs not available to the public are all contributing factors.
“Vets daily make life-and-death decisions, which can be a heavy and lonely burden. We work on our own a lot of the time. Pressures can easily build up. They are the reason some young vets are leaving the profession after only a year or two.”
THERE are more stresses on vets than doctors, he feels. “GPs can send their patients to hospital for further treatment but vets mostly have to get on with it on their own.
“People come to vets with their problems every day. Vets are expected to be strong and able to cope.”
Psychologically, he says, vets are affected emotionally just as much as owners by the deaths of animals in their charge and can become upset by having to put down a much-loved pet. Yet they have to appear resilient and in control.
“People say, ‘Oh well you put animals to sleep’ – but you never get used to it. The patients you see a lot over the years and their animals become like your family. It is very, very hard to call it a day for an animal. It doesn’t get easier. You’ll get a little old lady who has a cat as her companion for her loneliness and you’ve got to tell her the cat has to be put to sleep. You think, ‘I’ve got to do this’, you get pretty distraught underneath, you do feel emotion.
“Not being able to save an animal, or knowing the kindest option is to end its life, can really get to you. And perhaps your private life is not going well or you have financial worries. Vets are often self-employed, with the responsibility of running a practice and employing staff as well as treating animals.
“Factor in expectations the ever-increasing of pet owners and changes in treatments and medicines and it’s easy to see why many of us feel stressed.”
Mark had been Peter’s dearest friend since they met at Liverpool University when training to be vets. He was outwardly “happy go lucky”, happily married and successful in his job but his mental health demons overcame him in the end. “He told me two weeks before he died that he had a chemical imbalance in his mind. His death shook me. When someone you love takes their own life you are never quite the same.
“He often didn’t want to talk about himself but I knew things sometimes got to him. I remember he’d been upset about losing a client to a neighbouring practice. It happens to all vets but can be like a dagger through the heart. Many people with depression might hear 1,000 compliments but only remember the single negative remark.”
And as for Peter: “I suffered from depression as a teenager and was bullied at school. Although I’ve had periods as an adult where I’ve felt gloomy and ‘down’ and I’ve suffered all my life from a fear of failure, it is a long way from what Mark went through.”
One of the prerequisites of being a vet is being an animal lover and Peter certainly is. He shared the anguish of many of his pet-bereaved patients recently when his beloved pet boxer dog Alf died of lymphoma and heart failure after collapsing in the woods.
His elderly rescue cat also died shortly afterwards but a new pet has helped heal his heartbreak.
“I sadly could not save Alf who died in my arms. Our house was not a home any more without him and then some chap found a little stray kitten in a skip, a bundle of fluff. I took him in and he has transformed us back into a home. He’s called Toddy.”
AND stresses notwithstanding it’s still the profession he loves. So what is the best part of the job? “It’s bringing new life into the world, a new lamb, calf, puppy or kitten – that’s a job well done.”
He also loves being part of the community in his beloved North Yorkshire home town. “I’m a ‘Thirsky’ – it is beautiful here, the people are very friendly, there is beautiful countryside, people come here to visit and retire. A colleague once said, ‘Why do I need to go on holiday? It’s idyllic here’ and I agree.”
Hailing from a humble village background Peter first knew his vocation was as a vet while on a work experience placement at Alf Wight’s practice.
“I loved it – the buzz and the friendliness, it was love at first sight. I came back in 1982 after qualifying and have been there ever since.”
He has fond memories of Alf, who died in 1995. “A true gentleman who treated everyone the same. I never heard him raise his voice.”
Peter’s appearances on Channel 5’s The Yorkshire Vet on a Tuesday night reaching 2 million viewers have made him something of a celebrity and while he says he doesn’t see himself as one – “I don’t like to blow my own trumpet and find myself quite boring” – he has been recognised in public as far afield as India’s Taj Mahal and Australia.
And he is pleased the gentle show is something that appeals to all the family. “I get mothers bringing in their four-year-old children to see me, who like the show, right up to old people. That’s rather nice.”
The Yorkshire Vet: In The Footsteps Of Herriot, by Peter Wright is published in hardback by Mirror Books, £18.99. Available on Amazon and at Waterstones, Blackwells, WH Smith and all good bookshops.