Mansfield horse owner urges action on vet shortage
Guillaume Laflamme, LJI Reporter
Little Haven Farm in Mansfield is indeed a little haven to a wide range of animals, including alpacas, llamas, guinea hens, goats, chickens, and mini sheep, as well as miniature horses and donkeys, and regular-sized donkeys.
But Garrett Vekeryasz, one of the farm’s owners, says the lack of equestrian veterinarians in the region is making it difficult for him to provide his horses and donkeys with the care they need, and this month he organized a meeting with Pontiac MNA André Fortin to try and find some solutions.
Vekeryasz explained six of his animals – three miniature horses and three donkeys – don’t have access to veterinary care and that he can’t afford the significant costs of individually transporting these animals to see a veterinarian in Ontario.
“We often get calls and requests for adoption and rescues and things like this from varying situations, and we usually turn them away because we have no access to a vet,” Vekeryasz said.
“This past fall, we took a chance, and we rescued a horse, and because we weren’t able to access any vet care, she died within two months of us having her.”
Vekeryasz, like many horse owners in the Pontiac, is frustrated with what has remained a fairly dire shortage of equestrian vets in the region.
He purchased the farm with his partner back in 2019, and began hosting animals in 2020.
“We went into acquiring our animals and getting our animals with the expectation that there was a vet here, and then because of legalities and politics the vets left,” said Vekeryasz, also a teacher at l’École secondaire Sieur de Coulonge. “It’s been very stressful.”
Carole Savard is the secretary for the Pontiac Equestrian Association and owns a horse in Quyon.
“We’ve had a shortage for years in the Pontiac. And north of here, it’s worse,” she wrote to THE EQUITY .
Savard explained the equestrian community was left with no equine veterinary care in the region when Dr. Andrea Kelly passed away in the summer of 2022.
Dr. Kelly was a Kemptville-based veterinarian who was also licensed to practice in Quebec. She owned the Ottawa Valley Large Animal Clinic and served close to 600 clients in the Pontiac and Ottawa surrounding area.
Around the same time, Dr. Melissa Jowett, a part-time vet also serving the Pontiac area, lost her license to practice in Quebec because she was unable to pass a provincial French language test.
A petition circulated at the time to reinstate the license collected more than 3,000 signatures within its first week. It now has more than 13,000 signatures.
After the loss of the two last veterinarians in the region, the Pontiac Equestrian Association called on Dr. Yves Bouvier, an equine veterinarian from L’Ange-Gardien, for help.
According to Savard, Dr. Bouvier was meant to retire four years ago, but returned in 2023 to provide vaccinations for former clients through events organized by the association.
Savard explained that since then, the association has organized group vaccination events with the help of vets from Navan.
But Vekeryasz said his animals haven’t been able to benefit from the services such as these, organized by the Pontiac Equestrian Association, as most Ontario veterinarians only serve the east side of the Pontiac close to Aylmer and Quyon.
He also noted he believes the temporary licenses which are currently allowing Navan vets to practice in the Pontiac are set to expire next year.
It’s for this reason Vekeryasz is hoping virtual vet meetings will become available in the future, something he discussed in his meeting with Fortin, who is also the official opposition’s critic for agriculture.
Vekeryasz explained that through online vet services, veterinarians could diagnose the animal over a Zoom call. Although Vekeryasz admitted the solution would not solve all problems, he explained having access to a veterinarian, even through Zoom, would bring him peace of mind.
“It’s just having that reassurance that if there is an emergency, I have someone that I can contact, and they’re going to be there, they’re going to maybe know the profile of my animal already, to be able to guide me a little bit better,” Vekeryasz said.
Fortin has recognized the problem and stressed the need for government action. In an email to THE EQUITY written in French, Fortin explained the lack of veterinarians, especially for farm animals, is a real problem for the region, and leaves farmers to face difficult situations and impossible decisions.
He said he has been pushing for measures to attract more vets to rural areas and make the profession more appealing to veterinary students, and plans to propose several solutions when the Quebec National Assembly discusses a new animal welfare bill in the fall.
“Upon the return to the Chamber in September, the deputies will study a bill on animal welfare,” Fortin wrote in French. “As the spokesperson for the Quebec Liberal Party on agriculture, I will take the opportunity to propose various solutions to the minister related to the shortage of veterinarians, including measures to improve access that are already in effect in other province.”
The animal welfare bill, which came into effect in February this year, establishes new standards of care for domestic animals in Quebec and affords them rights laid out by the National Farm Animal Care Council.
Vekeryasz said he hopes the discussion of this bill in the National Assembly in the fall will offer a new opportunity to hold the province accountable to ensure farmers in every region have access to the veterinary care they need.
“Hopefully we can write into that bill that, in some fashion, that the government must provide every region access to veterinary care, either through virtual or physical means,” he said. “That’s going to be one of my main pushes for that bill.”
Mansfield horse owner urges action on vet shortage Read More »
