Lowered standard of care.

When Gilda came into my life, it became necessary for me to find a vet for my dogs. Due to the specialty nature of my clinic, we are kind of limited in what we can do for "normal" dog stuff- vaccines, etc. Aside from when Luna got sick and had to be seen as an emergency case, I have not had to be a client at a veterinary practice in five years.
I have always worked in veterinary practices that view an animal as a member of the family, treating every single one with care and compassion. The client too is treated like a member of the extended family; by the end of a visit, we usually know what the pet's favorite food is, how long ago the client's mother died, and how the pet helped her through that rough time. Everyone is treated as an individual, and receives genuine interest and care from the whole staff.
So you might say that I was more than a little shocked when I walked into a clinic as a client, and saw a couple checking out in the lobby in tears. The woman was clutching a handmade blanket and leaning against her husband, who was also in tears. It was very obvious that they had just lost a very beloved pet. The staff was standing behind the counter, gossiping. After about five minutes, one looked up and said, "yeah, we'll have your chart and check you out in a minute," before resuming her conversation. The woman finally had to leave, and her husband was still in the lobby waiting to pay when I left the lobby for an exam room.
I wrestled at this point with whether or not I should go back- I didn't want them showing this kind of cold behavior towards my animals! But I finally decided not to let the behavior of a few reflect on the practice as a whole- perhaps these people were just ignorant about how you treat someone who is grieving.
The second time I went back, there happened to be another euthanasia in the lobby. This dog was probably about fifty pounds, and was being held by an elderly man. The dog was agonal breathing and trembling violently. I would have expected them to rush out to help the man with his dog, take him to the exam room and at least get the dog comfortable. Nope! The receptionist was saying, "Yeah, you can cremate him... if you want to. The ashes? You can throw 'em in an urn or a box, or just dump 'em outside, you know, whatever." They then let him sit in the lobby for a good five minutes with his dog who was struggling to breathe. Apparently, it is common practice to not show compassion for euthanasias.
That sight made me sicker to my stomach than the first one, because in this case neither the animal nor the human were receiving any compassion. It was awful! As I was sitting in the exam room, all I could think about were the countless people and animals that had probably been treated the same way, and it made me so sad. It then dawned on me that none of the staff had ever once asked me how my pets were- they just dumped me in a room and left until the doctor came in. I made up my mind right then that I didn't want to take my pets anywhere that would not treat them as if they were their own.
This was solidified by the way the assistant treated Gilda in the room. After banging into the room and startling her into barking, she just snatched the leash away from me and dragged my poor dog out of the room whimpering in fear. Why couldn't she have knelt down, said something sweet, and then walked her out of the room nicely? Why couldn't she have said something before dragging my dog out of the room? And why did she feel that it was OK to make the snide remark that my dog was, "awfully aggressive for her breed." Because she barked when someone slammed the door open in a strange place? She certainly didn't act bad in the back, since I could hear them the whole time giving her her vaccine right outside the exam room door. When I was checking out, the receptionist let me know that Gilda's next visit should be for her spay. Instead of saying, "there is a snowball's chance in hell that I will ever bring her back here," I feigned an interest to be polite, asking them about their spay and what kind of pain control was used. "We don't use pain control." When I said that I didn't mind paying for it, she informed me that dogs didn't need pain control. And..... I was done.
I know that everyone has different needs for their pets, and that some people do consider their animals to be just animals while other people consider them to be very important members of the family. But shouldn't people who work with animals be a part of the second group???