Announcing the intended launch of the
International Institute for Improvement in Veterinary Ethics (IIIVE)
. . . a totally industry-independent and academia-independent organisation that will call loudly, ongoingly and increasingly for genuine transparency and accountability, and improved ethics, in the veterinary profession.
The current landscape of veterinary oversight is built upon a fundamental, structural paradox. While academic bodies - such as university ethics committees - exist in abundance, their ability to be truly effective is fundamentally flawed.
Similarly to supposed "regulatory" and industry watchdog organisations who are managed by the industry colleagues of the very practitioners whose standards and ethics they are charged with overseeing, so too are "ethics committees" conceived and populated by the same academic milieu and institutional architecture that spawns the very
practitioners
whose (often derailed) moral compass they are tasked with monitoring.
This incestuousness very frequently creates an unworkable
(for those seeking genuine investigation, objective complaint handling, and justice)
environment of protectionist cronyism, in which "standard"-setters and regulatory personnel lack the courage and moral fortitude to prosecute their industry colleagues. This, in place of the required environment of genuine accountability for veterinary institutions, practices and clinicians.
When a practitioner’s moral compass becomes derailed - resulting in, by way of example and by way of a horrific demonstration of institutional malpractice, deception and a resultant, cold,
calculated, clinical killing by a country's supposedly "gold standard" teaching "hospital"
(and one which charges the general public phenomenal fee levels as a facility for a supposedly superior level of care for their pets), Massey University's Companion Animal "Hospital" - the institutional apparatus is designed to absorb the shock, protect the "brand", and shield its agents from the consequences of their actions.
'Ethics Committees' As Branding Exercises and Regulatory Bodies As Old Boys' (& Girls') Networks
The same systemic failure applies to the veterinary industry’s regulatory organisations. They are peer-reviewed, peer-governed, and
peer-protected
. . . while the output of "ethics committees" - if not their very existence - are more marketing-value branding exercises than non-negotiable, enforceable standards.
Blatantly lacking are the very inputs that count the most (after those of the animals themselves): those of the pet owners, or "pet parents," as we see ourselves.
But WE are the stakeholders who provide the love, who provide the life-long care, and who (usually with great financial pain and sacrifice) represent the financial lifeblood of the broader veterinary industry. Yet, in the sterile halls of academia and regulation, our voices are treated as secondary emotional noise rather than primary ethical stakeholders. And, in what would finally become the flashpoint for the mobilisation of the International Institute for Improvement in Veterinary Ethics, also - most concerningly of all - in the teaching-based veterinary "hospitals" that pet parents assume (very wrongfully,
in this case, and probably in many more) represent the very best option for their beloved pets' "care" and treatment.
The Catalyst for IIIVE
Following the horrific deception by a veterinarian and associated personnel at Massey University’s Companion Animal "Hospital" that resulted in their regrettable coercion of me to allow - and even to submit to that morally-depraved and ethically-barren veterinarian's instruction to forcefully participate in - the unnecessary clinical killing of my own precious little dog (under the guise of a necessary "euthanasia," that was, in reality, the destruction of the evidence of an incomprehensible degree of multifaceted malpractice) . . . this pet owner is establishing, and will become the
Executive Director of, the
International Institute for Improvement in Veterinary Ethics (IIIVE).
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"I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment." —
Benjamin Disraeli
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Why the IIIVE is Not 'Just Another Ethics Committee'
It is essential to the mission that the IIIVE not be seen as just one more largely ineffective, academia-based, or sold-out-to-industry "ethics committee."
These bodies lack the one thing required for true reform: the raw, unvarnished insight into the very human, and the very lasting, impacts of breached - or, in the case that has given birth to the IIIVE, totally absent - ethics at both the institutional and individual veterinarian levels.
To understand the necessity of this Institute, one must look at the clinical and spiritual wreckage left in the wake of Massey's failure:
The Five Pillars of Independence
1. Absolute Independence from Industry or Institutional Influence
The IIIVE operates entirely outside the academic-industrial complex.
To ensure uncompromised oversight, the Institute rejects any funding, sponsorship, or "expert" collaboration from universities, veterinary associations, or corporate pharmaceutical entities.
This structural independence is a prerequisite; it ensures the Institute answers to no board but only to the facts, free from the institutional self-protection that paralyses existing committees and regulatory organisations.
2. Fact-Based Empowerment of the Pet Parent as Arbiter of Ethics
The Institute centralises the pet parent as the primary authority in the veterinary relationship.
However (and as is the root of Pillar 3), true ethical boundaries can only be directed by an owner who has been provided with accurate information, strictly free from clinical coercion, pressure, or the exertion of professional preference.
Historically, veterinary "ethics" has been the product of closed loop discussions and decisions between practitioners and their peers. The IIIVE shifts this governing authority back to the people who provide the care and the love to the animals that are the very reason for being of the veterinary industry, and from whose wallets is extracted the financial lifeblood of that industry.
3. Clinical Record Transparency
We assert that clinical records are the property of the truth, and by extension, the owner.
The IIIVE champions the non-negotiable right to access full, unadulterated, contemporaneous veterinary data, rejecting the "sanitised summary" as a tool of institutional obfuscation.
To bridge the gap between technical jargon and reality, the Institute facilitates the
Owner’s Audit protocol. This methodology involves the retrieval of raw notes, independent technical translation, and a contrast audit to expose discrepancies between a clinic’s verbal narrative and its recorded actions, ensuring transparency in both clinical performance and in fee charging.
4. Accountability & Global Reputational Consequence
When local regulatory bodies are too closely aligned with the institutions they are mandated to monitor, the IIIVE bypasses them.
We leverage independent publishing and targeted international distribution to ensure that local clinical failures carry global consequences.
Under our Reporting and Response Protocol, the Institute receives concerns from pet parents and, with permission, presents them directly to the subject veterinarian or clinic. The subsequent response - or the notable absence thereof - is published in full, placing institutional conduct under the light of global peer and public scrutiny.
5. Economic Justice & Accessibility of Veterinary Care
The IIIVE stands in absolute opposition to financial opportunism and the institutionalisation of predatory pricing. We audit and expose billing practices that
unreasonably
prioritise corporate profit margins over patient access.
We reject any economic model that defaults to price-fixing or restricts veterinary care to the affluent. Further, we hold that it is a violation of fundamental ethics to prey upon the vulnerability and emotional distress of pet owners.
The Institute identifies and exposes
unconscionable conduct.
That is,
the exploitation of pet parents (including and especially in moments of crisis and critical decision-making, whether this applies collectively or individually) who are in no position to protect their own interests, and who may find themselves subject to untenable decisions by virtue of generally predatory pricing practices or real-time financial opportunism.
READERS & INTERESTED PET PARENTS: The International Institute for Improvement in Veterinary Ethics (IIIVE) will be the subject of progressive structural establishment and a phased public-facing roll-out.
The Customer & The Constituent
team looks forward to bringing you regular progress reports.
