More pet owners react to vet video

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Today the College of Veterinarians of Ontario released the reasons for the discipline taken against Mahavir Rekhi. They say the panel spent some time viewing the videos that were provided by former staff at Skyway Animal Hospital, videos which they say prove professional misconduct, including striking animals with open and closed hands, suspending an animal by the neck or legs, choking and striking animals with instruments.

In 2012, Ninja the cat was spayed by Mahavir Rekhi at the Skyway Animal Clinic and about two months ago, her owner Matt De Marco got a call from the College of Veterinarians of Ontario. He found the conversation confusing. Then last night he saw the videos that led to Rekhi’s license suspension.

“I’m watching this thing, like, that kinda looks like my cat and then, I thought, wait a minute, I got that call. Then I recognized the date stamp, and I thought, holy geez that’s my cat being swung around like a bag of potatoes.”

Ninja is a healthy, energetic cat but she did act oddly after Rekhi’s treatment. Staff at Skyway couldn’t even hand her back to De Marco.

“When I went in there, Ninja was growling like a dog.”

Mahavir Rekhi pleaded guilty to professional misconduct and his license was suspended for 10 months. If he completes a number of courses and writes an essay about what he learned in each one, he could have that suspension reduced to 6 months. He still has to pay $10 000 and if he comes back to work, he’s subject to 3 unannounced inspections a year for two years. But OSPCA is also investigating and there’s a potential for criminal charges.

Rekhi’s lawyer says his client does plan to return to veterinary practice, after retraining in animal restraint and behaviour modification. Rekhi was trained in India and licensed here in 1999.

“He was not ever instructed in Canada or tested in Canada in these sorts of things. He was distraught and embarrassed to see the allegations and he takes full responsibility for it.”

The Veterinarian College panel says Rekhi has already completed two courses on handling animals and his lawyer says he’s currently taking others.