It's a very human approach to want someone to blame -- a very emotionally
painful human approach.  All over the world people have died as a result:
ice maidens in the Andes and others to mountains, earth, and other
geological features -- such as those scapegoats used in Europe's ancient
Massillia who were chosen from the most suffering and then treated royally
to absorb the sins of others until they were finally thrown to the sea by
priests of their version of Artemis, sacrifices on alters, crucifixes,
fires, etc.  It is very, very human to want to have someone to blame.
 
Yet, recently, we have seen two cases in which someone is being blamed
(vets in each case) who might not hold any blame.  They might simply have
pulled out all of the stops trying to help badly suffering and incredibly
ill animals.  Heck, we've tried some things experimentally on terminal
ferrets (often with success for more quality time) to try to help.  Not
all of those things did help, but it was worth the try.
 
When an individual is very ill and extreme forms of health care are
needed: round the clock nursing and so on -- sometimes trying something
just in case it might help in what seems otherwise hopeless -- then folks
just have to face up to the reality that the ILLNESS (rather than a
person) may be to blame.  The older I get the more I notice that a great
number of things SIMPLY HAPPEN.
 
Now, it may be that there is someone who holds some blame in either of
these cases, but that has to be determined from hard facts: necropsy and
pathology results, and discussions with experts on medicating ferrets,
and so on.  It could turn out the other way: that no one has any blame.
Please, be careful to not assign blame in a situation until all of the
facts are in.  A person may have suspicions and that is only human, but --
until facts are in -- whether suspicions will pan out is like the question
of whether a glass is half full or half empty: unanswerable.
 
The more we like to think that we are in a very different century with our
e-mails and explorations the more we find that at our cores we still have
many basal characteristic emerging in their modern-day versions (albeit
less painful and terrifying, and less damaging) of those who burned,
crushed, and hung folks at Salem, or threw parchment with their sins
written on them at the ancient scapegoat, or read human entrails to see
how a battle would go.  Yes, I know that folks were horrified and merely
wanted to help someone who is suffering; we all have that gut response.
So did those who cried, "Witch!" in Salem; they really felt in their
cores that this would help their communities and save others.
 
Now, what has happened here on these issues is nowhere like that in degree
and is only that that in finding someone to blame prematurely so far,
but what if names wind up being passed around and a reputable vet who was
just trying to help someone loses enough business to stay solvent?  Do we
really know what will happen then, if the person may be helping fund an
ill relative or handling some other such serious burden?  Rumors and other
false "information" have hurt many good people badly -- especially when
amplified by internet access -- and there is no good reason to jump into
that erroneous and destructive behavior, so let's not go any further till
more is known.
 
Before we blame let's realize that this may go either way when more is
known, and just wait for facts and report transcripts.  It may be that
someone is to blame, or it may be that no one is to blame -- that it
simply was the illness.  Many things that go wrong in life -- possibly
most -- just are not fault situations.
[Posted in FML issue 3682]