Another rant (this one's about nutrition and vet tech school...the first of many to come).
So the other day I decided to filp through Educating Your Clients from A to Z, a book we were required to buy for Occ Prep even though I'm fairly certain the teacher has no intentions of actually using it. The chapter on nutrition 2.5 pages long and can be summed down to: Kibble is great for teeth, be enthusiastic about selling the foods your clinic sells, and be VERY enthusiastic about selling prescription diets (which can only be sold at a vet's office because, you know, druggies on the street would kill to get their hands on some C/D so they could crush it up and snort it). And how should you educate yourself about the foods your clinic sells? Why you need to ask the reps! Pet food reps give you the most fantabulous, unbiased information EVAR and after you talk to a pet food rep you'll know everything you will ever need to know about their food. And the one resource cited for the nutrition chapter? A videotape by Hill's Science Diet called Practice Health: Ways to Enhance Your Cash Flow.
WAYS TO ENHANCE YOUR CASH FLOW.
I just wanted you all to read that again.
Also, the good people of Hill's Science Diet took the liberty of buying me pizza the other day while vet tech student/Science Diet reps (they were one in the same) told us new vet tech students about the FANTASTIC deal we get -- Science Diet food that's at least half the price of what we'd pay for it in the store! Way to go, Hill's: Offer vet tech students super cheap food and tell them it's super good and then they'll feed it to their pets and recommend it to everyone else who can go and buy it at double the price because wouldn't a vet tech know what food is best?
Please don't tell me I'm the only one who sees something horribly wrong here.
And what makes me even more irate about this is that I can go to Dr. Sheldon, the program director, and tell her how disgusted I am with all of this and how the alliance the vet community has with the pet food companies repulsive and just shouldn't exist and what happens then? Do you honestly think that Dr. Sheldon will say, "Oh my gosh, Kiki, you're so right! I've been doing this for years but now I see the light! We're going to switch our dogs and cats in the program to human grade food! No, wait, we'll switch them to raw! THANK YOU SO MUCH, KIKI!!" No. The best initial result I could expect is, "Hmmmm. You sound a little crazy but I might look into it. Until then, when you graduate and vet clinics are calling and asking what I think about you, I'll be a little hesitant to give you a great recommendation because you stir things up and can cause some problems. I'm just not too sure."
And yes, people should be hesitant about seemingly radical, new ideas, but if everyone always did that then kibble should have never gotten off the ground in the first place because there's no good reason to promote shitty overly processed foods over anything remotely healthy.
Load of crap, I say.
So the other day I decided to filp through Educating Your Clients from A to Z, a book we were required to buy for Occ Prep even though I'm fairly certain the teacher has no intentions of actually using it. The chapter on nutrition 2.5 pages long and can be summed down to: Kibble is great for teeth, be enthusiastic about selling the foods your clinic sells, and be VERY enthusiastic about selling prescription diets (which can only be sold at a vet's office because, you know, druggies on the street would kill to get their hands on some C/D so they could crush it up and snort it). And how should you educate yourself about the foods your clinic sells? Why you need to ask the reps! Pet food reps give you the most fantabulous, unbiased information EVAR and after you talk to a pet food rep you'll know everything you will ever need to know about their food. And the one resource cited for the nutrition chapter? A videotape by Hill's Science Diet called Practice Health: Ways to Enhance Your Cash Flow.
WAYS TO ENHANCE YOUR CASH FLOW.
I just wanted you all to read that again.
Also, the good people of Hill's Science Diet took the liberty of buying me pizza the other day while vet tech student/Science Diet reps (they were one in the same) told us new vet tech students about the FANTASTIC deal we get -- Science Diet food that's at least half the price of what we'd pay for it in the store! Way to go, Hill's: Offer vet tech students super cheap food and tell them it's super good and then they'll feed it to their pets and recommend it to everyone else who can go and buy it at double the price because wouldn't a vet tech know what food is best?
Please don't tell me I'm the only one who sees something horribly wrong here.
And what makes me even more irate about this is that I can go to Dr. Sheldon, the program director, and tell her how disgusted I am with all of this and how the alliance the vet community has with the pet food companies repulsive and just shouldn't exist and what happens then? Do you honestly think that Dr. Sheldon will say, "Oh my gosh, Kiki, you're so right! I've been doing this for years but now I see the light! We're going to switch our dogs and cats in the program to human grade food! No, wait, we'll switch them to raw! THANK YOU SO MUCH, KIKI!!" No. The best initial result I could expect is, "Hmmmm. You sound a little crazy but I might look into it. Until then, when you graduate and vet clinics are calling and asking what I think about you, I'll be a little hesitant to give you a great recommendation because you stir things up and can cause some problems. I'm just not too sure."
And yes, people should be hesitant about seemingly radical, new ideas, but if everyone always did that then kibble should have never gotten off the ground in the first place because there's no good reason to promote shitty overly processed foods over anything remotely healthy.
Load of crap, I say.
xlustx:
I sense a bonfire in the making. How big is this book?