Candlelight vigil for animals in abusive vet’s care
Protest organizer calls penalties handed out by college ‘an outrageous and embarrassing display of justice’
There are now two protests planned at the office of a St. Catharines veterinarian suspended for abusing animals.
The College of Veterinarians of Ontario suspended Dr. Mahavir Singh Rekhi for professional misconduct on Aug. 20 after he was caught abusing animals in his care.
A group of former employees, upset with penalties they feel are too lenient, went public and released the video evidence they gathered as part of their complaint to the college. The graphic footage showed Rekhi hitting and choking animals.
Niagara Action for Animals and Brock Students for Animal Liberation are planning a candlelight vigil at Skyway Animal Hospital Monday, Sept. 26, at 7:15 p.m.
Liz Smith of Brock Students for Animal Liberation is helping to organize the vigil at the clinic at 514 Welland Ave.
“We want to acknowledge the outrage from the lax discipline Dr. Mahavir Singh Rekhi has received from the Ontario College of Veterinarians,” she said. “We are also holding the vigil to honour the animal victims that came from that vet specifically — but also show that this is happening behind closed doors too often.”
There is also a protest planned for the clinic Saturday, Oct. 1, at 11 a.m. Darlene Stevens, a Niagara Falls woman, is organizing it. More than 200 people on a Facebook page set up for the protest have said they plan to attend. The page has been shared more than 2,700 times.
In addition, there are two online petitions calling on the college to revoke Rekhi’s license. One has attracted more than 43,000 signatures. Another has more than 37,000 signatures.
The college suspended Rekhi’s licence for 10 months for his actions. Rekhi can reduce his sentence to six months if he completes retraining that includes mentorships with two veterinarians, an online certificate program and a seminar and a oneday shadowing of another veterinarian. His clinic would also be open to some unannounced spot checks to ensure his compliance. He also must pay the college $10,000.
“I know that there are petitions going around, and they have garnered a lot of signatures,” Smith said. “Petitions work well when it is one specific case. I hope it is successful, and his licence is revoked. I don’t think he should be able to practise again. He obviously shows violent tendencies, and I don’t think that can be resolved by taking seminars or whatever he has to do.”
She called the penalties handed out to Rekhi by the college “an outrageous and embarrassing display of justice.”
Animal cruelty charges can fall under the Criminal Code of Canada as well. They carry penalties of up to five years in prison, and provincial law carries a two-year sentence and up to $60,000 in fines, she said.
Kevin Strooband of Lincoln County Humane Society, who is also an officer with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, launched a local investigation into Rekhi last week. It is ongoing.
Rekhi has had his clinic vandalized, and his lawyer said the veterinarian contacted police after he and his family received numerous threats. Other vet clinics in the city, that have nothing to do with Rekhi, have been on the receiving end of threats and abuse. One had a window cracked after being shot at with what appears to be a pellet gun.
Jessica Hamilton, one of the veterinary technicians who helped gather the video evidence and launch the complaint, said she has been inundated with messages.
“I am moved by all of the support, but there is a dark side to social media that has caught up with me,” she said. “I am getting some really nasty messages from people. I understand people are passionate and angry, but some of them are saying I am just as bad as the vet — and it kind of hurts.
“I wish people could take a step back and see there was really no other way to catch him. I could have confronted him, but we would never have got our hands on the tape. We would never have caught him. Nothing would have changed. I wanted to make sure he didn’t touch people’s pets again. In the long run, it will hopefully stop him.”
Hamilton said she believes her and the two other veterinary technicians who gathered the evidence have suffered some level of post traumatic stress disorder.
“I would get these random panic attacks worrying about him touching someone’s animal,” she said. “I lost sleep. I dreamed about it. It was torture for us, but we had to wait. I felt terrible about it. We went to two separate lawyers about this and were told not to go public until the CVO (veterinary college) made their ruling, that he would sue us for everything we have. It ruined our lives pretty much. Two of us left the industry. He ruined our passion for the occupation.”
Hamilton said one of the worst parts has been talking to former clients.
“It haunts me to this day,” she said. “I have people coming to me and saying, ‘I am the owner of one of the pets. Did anything happen to my pet?’
“I was only there six months. Some dogs I could tell people, yes, I remember your dog, and she wasn’t mistreated while I was there. But some people I can’t say.”
Hamilton said the abuse wasn’t constant during the six months she worked at the clinic.
“These were weird random acts of abuse,” she said. “He didn’t handle animals this way all the time. One of the vet techs worked for him for 12 years and said he didn’t become abusive until that year. I don’t know what changed in his life.
“I’m hoping this changes the way some vets operate. As an owner, you obviously can’t be there if the dog is in surgery, but hopefully, vets will be more open to having owners there for procedures … The owners should be there.”