If you read Dolittler relatively regularly, you’ll know I post in defense of pit bulls as pets. As an ex-pittie owner, I feel strongly about breed specific legislation (such as the banning of pit bulls from many municipalities across the US).

In practice, it’s a fear-based, discriminatory policy where justice is too often meted out unfairly. It condemns dogs almost exclusively on the basis of...

The former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska has more on her animal welfare record than hailing from the town where the Iditarod makes its annual start. However you feel about this famous sled-dog race, its potential welfare issues pale in comparison to the sport of aerial hunting and the opposition to endangered designations for needy species.

Though it won’t necessarily drive my vote, knowing how my...

When you buy a puppy you buy a “health certificate” to go with her. Like any literal-minded consumer you assume a certificate with this title means she’s been examined by a veterinarian and has received a stamp of approval in the health department.

Guess again.

Last week I fielded a flurry of emails from my FVMA (Florida Veterinary Medical Association) list-serve. The topic was the widespread...

The problem with this Good Morning America segment on the ABCNews website is all in the title: “Poisonous People Food.”

Beyond the scary headline, everything contained therein is pretty responsible, just like everything else Dr. Marty Becker works on. My criticism is confined to the acknowledgment that whenever “people foods” get singled out for their evils (even in this case, where toxic...

It’s not just the simple bite wounds sustained during a brief brawl at the puppy park. It’s also the crushing injuries, the broken bones and the bleeding lungs that are at stake when pets get into it.

The worst cases are fall under the category of “BDLD” (“big-dog-little-dog”) interactions or occur when cats get handed the business end of a dog’s maw. In these cases the aggressors are usually...

Ever thought you wanted to be a large animal vet? For a while, I did, too. I was one of those “horsey” girls. You know the ones—played the Pony Club, leased horses in middle school with spare change (or managed to find a way to get their parents to pay for it). They’d do anything for those creatures.

Fast-forward ten years and vet school’s in her sights. But all she hears after subjugating her...

Anyone who’s kept up with my blog entries probably knows my opinion on part-time pet ownership. So you can easily imagine my skull imploding over breakfast yesterday after spying the headline of a front page article in the Wall Street Journal.

“An Idea Whose Time Has Come: The Time-Share Dog.”

Seriously?

Not that the article concludes in favor of shared dogs, not when you consider how it...

No, I don’t own a veterinary practice. I can give you a very long list explaining this lapse in my traditional vet career trajectory.

And while on paper it’s a justifiable life choice, I’ll confess: Eschewing practice ownership doesn’t make me feel particularly virtuous or successful as a small-animal practitioner. I suspect the same is true of many of my ambitious colleagues.

Here’s why I’ve...

Since I'll be kayaking in Key Largo far away from my DSL modem for the next couple of days, this and the next post are reprints of the last couple months' Veterinary Practice News columns.Enjoy and comment away--I'll be back on Tuesday to respond.

I’ve suffered the disgrace of a malpractice lawsuit--no, not mine. But I served as a witness in a case brought against another veterinarian. The...

Last weekend kicked off this years’ AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) convention in New Orleans. I was meant to attend but, sadly, it fell casualty to my own pets’ needs. Luckily, I have Mr. Wayne Pacelle of the HSUS to keep me informed on how the AVMA’s House of Delegates voted on the issue of veal calf confinement (see below for the link).

I checked on this myself and read that...