Media Coverage of vetabusenetwork.com 

Vetabusenetwork.com and efforts to reform the board system in Texas have received media coverage in major Texas markets and elsewhere. 

 

 National - Syndicated Radio

September 27, 2010

  Conscious Lifestyles Radio, host Ginger Leilani Chapin, September 27, 2010, guest Julie Catalano, vetabusenetwork.com, "How to Protect Your Pets." (Click on link above the video.)

 

San Antonio - Television

June 2, 2010

  KENS-TV Businesses Fighting Back Against Online Complaints with Lawsuits

San Antonio--Investigative report by Brian New of KENS-TV, the CBS affiliate in San Antonio, on the $1.5 million SLAPP suit filed against Julie Catalano, founder of vetabusenetwork.com by the vet who killed Suki - Ed Nichols of Crestway Animal Clinic, San Antonio, in a failed attempt to take away her First Amendment rights with unconstitutional temporary and permanent injunctions. [NOTE: For more information about this bully SLAPP suit, go to Suki's Safe Haven - The Lawsuit]

Update! Texas passed anti-SLAPP legislation in 2012. Bully lawsuits like the one Ed Nichols of Crestway filed against me will be essentially impossible to prevail without any proof of their bogus claims. Judges can now outright dismiss these types of suits if the bully plaintiff files what amounts to a frivolous lawsuit in an attempt to deprive someone of their First Amendment rights.

 

Canton, Ohio - Radio

2009

  Q92, 92.5 FM, WDJQ, Canton, Ohio, DeLuca in the Morning - Veterinary Malpractice. Guests: Stefani Olsen, The Toonces Project;  Chad Thompson, Macedonia OH; Julie Catalano, vetabusenetwork.com

 

Online - Radio

2009

Blog Talk Radio, Canine Mutiny. July 1, 2009. Host PK Shader. Guest: Julie Catalano

 

San Antonio - Television

November 18, 2008

Watch the KSAT-12 trailer here

Full segment:

KSAT-12 in San Antonio Asks "Who's Vetting Your Vet?" 

"Vets are getting away with murder, basically..." 

--Greg Munson. advocate, Mesquite, TX

San Antonio--ABC affiliate KSAT-12 aired an investigative piece on Tuesday, November 18, 2008, entitled "Vetting Your Vet." Reported by April Molina, the Defenders segment focused on pet owners trying to make changes at the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. Advocates Greg Munson (www.stempy.net) and Julie Catalano, founder of vetabusenetwork.com were interviewed, along with Dewey Helmcamp, executive director of the state board.

 

Dallas/Fort Worth - Television

March 21 and 22, 2007

Dallas/Fort Worth -- Watch CBS 11's anchor Tracy Rowlett's two-part investigative series on KTVT-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth:

  Pet Owners Claim Vet Malpractice Killed Dogs/Pet Owners Fight for Better Animal Health Care (Dallas/Fort Worth), cbs11tv.com, March 21-22, 2007 (Interview with Greg Munson, Julie Catalano, Jack Wolfson, Janie Carpenter DVM

 

National - Print

May 2004

Reader's Digest, "The Power of Forgiving," May 2004, by Lisa Collier Cool

Excerpt:

Even if forgiveness isn’t the answer, you can find peace. Julie Catalano, 51, of San Antonio, did — despite what she calls the “incomprehensible cruelty” of a veterinarian she says let her 19-year-old cat, Suki, die. She says the cat was lethargic when she sought help. Tests showed anemia and a kidney disorder. Instead of doing all he could to save Suki, Catalano claims, the vet performed unnecessary dental surgery and underprescribed medications. (The vet denied it; a state inquiry cleared him of wrongdoing.)

“I made a conscious decision not to forgive — and feel absolutely no guilt about it,” Catalano says. Nevertheless, her outrage has a constructive side: It led her to found an animal advocacy group. “Fighting to protect other pets is what’s given me spiritual healing.”

_________

ABOUT:

Julie Catalano is a Texas-based independent writer and a credentialed member of the Authors Guild and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She has published hundreds of articles and selected accompanying original photography on health, business, travel, food, design, dance, media, education, Hispanic issues, and profiles on people in arts, entertainment, and business in local, regional and national consumer and trade publications for more than 30 years. She's won awards from Women in Communications, International Association of Business Communicators, and the San Antonio Advertising Federation, and has published three books, the most recent The Women's Pharmacy: An Essential Guide to What Women Should Know About Prescription Drugs (New York: Random House/Dell, 2000).

In 2000, after a devastating experience with a San Antonio veterinarian who was inexplicably exonerated by a single board vet in Austin who ignored all of the documented evidence in Suki's case, she founded a web site that evolved into the Veterinary Abuse Network, a grass roots companion animal resource site to inform the public about the problems of veterinary negligence and the systems that protect it.

In 2004, her testimony to the Sunset Commission in Austin led to changes in the complaint review process in Texas so that never again would only one board vet have the power to unilaterally protect a colleague without question, and she remains involved in monitoring activities at the state board level. From 2005-2008 she successfully battled a SLAPP suit and injunction initiated by the same vet who mistreated Suki whose goal it was to dismantle her web site and take away her First Amendment rights. He failed.

She has been interviewed for news segments on major network affiliates in Dallas and San Antonio, and guested on radio shows online and off, helping consumers make more informed choices in veterinary care. Her story about Suki, "The Sun Worshiper," appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Cat's Life: 101 Stories (2011). She is available for media interviews, writing and speaking engagements, and guest blogging. Contact her here.


What Happened to Suki...


And what happened to me


Media Inquiries:

Julie Catalano