Open letter to the PDSA

Below is a letter (email) I wrote to the PDSA -People's Dispensary for Sick Animals- after I was refused treatment for my kitten Moriarty because I lived outside their catchment area:

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I just thought I'd take the time to give you some feedback on my experience with your services.

I have a new kitten, his name is Moriarty and I love him to pieces. Naturally, I want him to be healthy but as I am unemployed I was worried about affording his vaccinations when someone suggested I register him with the PDSA and pay what I can.

It might be worth mentioning at this point that I have a local vet that I have used for my pet rats when they became poorly. Mildmay veterinary clinic in Winnall, Winchester.

My cousin informed me that I would need to find out which PDSA vets he would be in the catchment area for before I could make an appointment to have him seen. I checked on your website and was shocked to find that I wasn't in the catchment area for ANY PDSA clinics. I live in a village just south of Winchester, by the way.

There must have been a mistake, I thought, surely there must be PDSA clinics in Winchester. I typed in a Winchester post code and sure enough there were two of them, one of them being Mildmay veterinary clinic, my local vet that has treated all my pets since I moved to Winchester.

I talked to my vet about getting Moriarty registered with the PDSA since I was already using Mildmay as my local veterinary clinic and it would seem that I was within Mildmay's catchment area as they defined it but was not in the area as described by the PDSA so he would be ineligible. I then had to pay for Moriarty's vaccinations with what little money I had as I just couldn't bear the thought of Moriarty being at risk.

So to sum it up, I went to a veterinary clinic that offers PDSA services and whose catchment are I fall into but had to pay for their non-PDSA services because the PDSA is more discerning about their own catchment areas.

I appreciate that you're doing all you can but wouldn't it make more sense for your clinics to at least extend to the same boundaries the veterinary clinics themselves use?

Perhaps I should have researched this before getting the kitten? Maybe so, but both myself and my cousin, who uses your services, thought it unthinkable that a charitable organisation dedicated to helping animals would disqualify animals in certain post codes, such as mine. I would like to know how you think this is acceptable?

I'm writing this not just because I am frustrated, but also since this appears to leave large areas of the country (like my village) in which sick animals will go ignored by you. I'm sure you don't turn away emergency cases (at least I sorely hope not) but surely you don't want people to ignore sick animals until their case becomes an emergency?

I'm a charitable person, I volunteer at my local Oxfam twice a week and was more than prepared to give whatever I could to keep your organisation helping sick animals but this episode has left a bitter taste in my mouth and makes me wonder how many people out there weren't in a catchment area and left their kitten or puppy unvaccinated due to their struggle making ends meet. Not to be melodramatic but I expected better from you.

Sincerely,

Samuel Curd & Moriarty