Veterinary Politics

Veterinary Politics

Lots of things don't get done in Cuba because of the generally stressful state of the economy. This is certainly true of veterinary care for the people's dogs and cats. It isn't that Cuba doesn't have enough vets--they do. But the free vet education comes with a price; you have to work for the government. Thus after graduation, vets take jobs as meat inspectors, airport inspectors, teachers, public health officials, and the like. Domestic pets don't get much priority from the government, so there are precious few positions available in animal hospitals.

What makes vet care available for domestic pets is that vet salaries working for the government are very low--about $20 a month. So in a country of pet lovers, many vets turn to moonlighting. Many neighborhoods have a vet who has turned a garage or spare room into a vet office or surgery.

More than ten years ago Nora Garcia, Aniplant's President realized she could improve the availability of vet care for Havana's dogs and cats. She began establishing vet offices around the town and charging the clients whatever they could afford for the vet treatments. As a tribute to her energy and motivation, Aniplant soon operated ten branch vet office locations and was planning to open more. And Aniplant now had a source of income for its other programs.

Unfortunately some of the moonlighting vets with their own part time offices began to regard the chain of Aniplant vet offices as competition, a dirty word in a Communist country. The vets filed a complaint. A difference of this kind is settled between the different ministries involved after considering the position of the organizations within their oversight. All Cuban private organizations are overseen by one of the government ministries. In Aniplant's case, the overseer is the Ministry of Agriculture, and the veterinarians have a different ministry.

The way it worked out, Aniplant was obligated to close their vet offices, but they were allowed to operate one only. In 2005 when I first knew Aniplant, they were not even operating the one branch they were permitted, as their headquarters was hard to find and up eight flights of stairs.

Today, with Aniplant's new easy to find Central Havana street level headquarters, Aniplant is building a new vet office with special assistance from Dr. Richard White, a world traveling veterinarian from the UK. His generous support is helping the new clinic to come into being.

We keep finding new friends for the animals of Cuba.

Les Inglis