Speaking as a person who's family was totally upended due to false
accusations of this sort, I would caution ANYONE who would express a
perverse sense of satisfaction over the case of the veterinarian in
WA state who's license was suspended due to allegations of drug use.

My husband, a pharmacist of 31 yrs, managed a local pharmacy from it's
inception, for about 27 yrs. He was one of the most senior pharmacists
in the company in which he worked, & was highly respected & praised for
his work & dedication. Three yrs ago, the company he worked for (a very
well known grocery chain who's name I will not mention here) decided
they wanted to hire a younger pharmacist, who would cost them much less
money than my husband did. They accused him of stealing cough syrup (he
*was* using cough syrup at the time -- he had bronchitis -- but he was
using the prescribed dosage of the medicine his dr prescribed him, &
which was properly dispensed & in a properly marked bottle). On top
of that, when couldn't make their further charges of him supposedly
stealing Vicodin stick (which was beyond preposterous), they rummaged
the pharmacy & found one bottle of a certain medicine that had one pill
missing, & they charged him w/ stealing that. He was forced to resign
from his job, & felony charges were filed against him -- which put him
in danger of losing his pharmacy license. Fortunately, to make a long
story (of about a yr & a half) short, the charges were disproved, of
course, & the charges were dropped. The entire time this was going on,
even our state board of pharmacy knew the charges were bogus, but they
had to await the ruling of the courts before they could clear his name
completely (at least his license wasn't suspended in the meantime, so
he was able to work for a temp agency). One of the companies he worked
as a temp for loved him so much, they hired him outright. He's making
more money w/ his new company, as well. As for the grocery store chain,
so much for company loyalty. Within a mo of my husband's case being
finalized, they falsely charged *yet another* long time pharmacy
employee of theft charges, & forced that person out, as well. Between
what happened to my husband & this other employee, the store actually
*lost* money, since they lost a lot of regular, long standing
customers, out of pure disgust over what they did.

While it is true everyone makes mistakes, the beauty of our justice
system is that we are PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.

The other thing to remember is the old saying, "there but for the grace
of God, go I." Crowing gleefully over the misfortune of others is
horrible, & when I read the post from the person who "reported" this
news on the FML, I did NOT empathize w/ their feelings of revenge --
I only remembered the feelings of terror experienced by myself, my
husband, & my children when it happened to *us*.

I sincerely hope the good doctor will come out on top of this, will
have her license reinstated, & will be allowed to continue her
excellent work w/ ferrets & other exotic species. My thoughts are w/
her. As for the original poster, I hope she eventually develops a
sense of humility.

Lin

[Posted in FML 7154]