Mary Rose Denina

English 3010

February 21, 2021

Week 6 Writing Activity

At RISE:
(The TCF Center in Detroit.
Early morning. Hustle and
bustle will a lot of people
entering the convention
center to attend the Ted
talk. CHRIST DOHERTY, DR.
PATTY KHULY, CHARLOTTE R.
HANSEN are leading this Ted
talk and MARY will be in the
audience observing and
listening to the conversation
between these Veterinarian
professionals.)
 (Day of Convention)

The Ted talk begins at noon and the three speakers enter on stage
and settle themselves in the chairs provided.
Everyone greets and introduces themselves one by one to the
audience.

Ted Talk Host

Shall we get started with introductions. How about starting with
Christ.

CHRIS DOHERTY
Hello I am Chris Doherty. It is a pleasure to be here I have
flown in from Ontario Canada. I am an economic analyst for the
Ontario Veterinary Medical Association.

DR. PATTY KHULY

Good Afternoon everyone. I am Dr. Patty Khuly. I have my own
practice down in Miami, Florida. I post a lot about the
veterinary world in my blog on Vetstreet.com.

CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
It is a pleasure to be here today. I am Charlotte Hansen. I work
for the American Veterinary Medical Association. I graduated
from the University of Kentucky

Ted Talk Host

Since introductions are now over. Shall we get into the talk
about the world of Veterinary. Dr. Patty how long have you been
in this field?

DR. PATTY KHULY

I have been in this field for as long as I can remember. I
helped out an animal clinic in my hometown since I was ten. From
there it has been my entire life.

CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
Since you were ten? That is amazing!
 Ted Talk Host
Chris as a Canadian. I Imagine the veterinary field is much more
different over there than it is here. What is it like over
there?

CHRIS DOHERTY
Veterinary fees have gone up the past 5 years. The increase in
fees is due to the cost of medication and the cost to keep a
veterinary facility working with employees and proper equipment.
I could imagine that it is no different than here-eh?

CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
Affordability to pay for veterinary services is a challenge for
some pet owners today. Pet owners consider their pets as part of
the family and would do anything to secure that their pet is in
top health.

DR. PATTY KHULY

There are many challenges that the Veterinary medicine field is
facing I don’t think it differs in the world. The main challenge
I would argue that the field faces is money. I think you would
all agree since you both were saying things along the lines of
finances.
(Charlotte and Chris both agree in unison)

DR. PATTY KHULY

In my time of research and my time in this field the corporate
squeeze has been increasing over the years. There are more
businesses and different brands for dog food and animal
medicine. It’s a crazy time for companies to try and get clinics
and consumers to sell and buy their self-proclaimed products as
the best out there.

CHRIS DOHERTY
I couldn’t agree with you more Dr. Khuly. During my time in
university, I remember my time during my clinicals where I sat
through many meetings with marketers trying to push for brands
of new food products that half of the time aren’t good for the
animals and will actually cause a ton of medical issues just to
have clients come back to fix those issues.

CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
That is awful to hear. But it’s the sad reality of capitalism
wherever you are in the world.
 (Ted Talk Host turns to the audience and announces that it is
time for audience questions and to form a line in front of the
microphone that is being set up by stagehand.

One by one a couple people from the audience line up. Mary also
stands up from her seat and stands in line to asks questions.
She is the third person in line.)

(It is finally Mary’s turn at the microphone)

MARY ROSE DENINA

(Mary nervously and quietly speaks into the microphone)
Hello, I have three questions to ask all of you. The first one
being, is it difficult to work in the veterinary field with the
issue’s corporate greed like the point that Mr. Doherty said
about the marketers selling products that cause animals to get
sick?

CHRIS DOHERTY
That is a very interesting question. I can only speak for
myself, but I find it difficult at times but eventually you are
desensitized to this issue and it’s something that you just
adapt too.

CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
I agree with some things that Chris said but on the other hand
it’s a battle between ethical practices verses non-ethical. I
would hope that most veterinarians have the best of their
patient’s health in mind when it comes to recommending the right
food and medicine.

DR. PATTY KHULY

Chris and Charlotte both make great points. You want to have
your patient’s health above all but with companies making their
products more expensive you need keep up with the changes in the
trends since you want your facility to keep running. It is sad
to say that a lot of clinics have become desensitize to these
things and stray further away from trying to provide the best
for animals to attaining more money.

MARY ROSE DENINA

My second question is, is there anything that can be done to
help people that will struggle with the increase in veterinary
fees and services?
 CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
With Pet insurance it helps people who cannot afford vet bills.
But most people will have to consider how often they need to
visit the vet. In most cases people with older animals should
consider investing in getting pet insurance.

DR. PATTY KHULY

Yes, that is true, but you’ll never know something might happen
and you might need to get a big major surgery done to your pet
and it’ll cost you a lot.

CHRIS DOHERTY
There’s not much you can do to stop what facilities chose to
price their services you can only chose not to go to that
facility and find a different one.

DR. PATTY KHULY

That is also a good point. Going back to the point of what
Charlotte said about ethical practice there are many place
people can go too to find cheaper cost in services. Like Petco
or pet smart or even donation base clinics like all about
animals.

MARY ROSE DENINA

My last question is that in the foreseeable future do you think
pet expanses will just continue to rise?

CHARLOTTE R. HANSEN
Study shows that more and more Americans own dogs, and that
figure continues to increase each year. In a survey done by the
humane society they concluded that there was an estimate of 63.4
million households that own dogs and 42.7 million that one a cat
as of 2019-2020.

CHRIS DOHERTY
As I said in the beginning of the program that vet fees increase
due to the increase in medicine, equipment and employee and
facility expenses. I can only imagine that it will just continue
to grow but there is only so much a facility can increase their
prices till they start losing patients to cheaper places.

(Mary thanks the speakers for answering her questions and she
walks back to her seat)
 Ted Talk Host
Well, that’s all the time we have for audience questions. Your
speakers will be back after this short break. Please feel free
to use the restrooms or to grab something quick to eat well
start the program back at 4:15.
 Works Cited

Doherty, Chris. “Veterinary fees, inflation, and expenses: Keep your foot on the gas.” The

Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne vol. 61,5 (2020): 543-547.

Khuly P. The 7 top challenges facing veterinary medicine in 2017. Feb 27, 2017. [Last accessed

February 6, 2018]. Available from: https://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/the-7-top-

challenges-facing-veterinary-medicine-in-2017/

Williams, Angelica et al. “The Impact of Pet Health Insurance on Dog Owners’ Spending for

Veterinary Services.” Animals 10.7 ( 2020): 1162. Crossref. Web.