There is something deeply painful about spending years building a veterinary clinic, only to one day be made to feel that everything you built is somehow illegal.
Veterinarians do not wake up wanting to violate the law.
We did not spend years in veterinary school, pass the board exams, invest our savings, borrow money, hire employees, purchase equipment, pay taxes, and build practices just so we could deliberately operate outside the rules.
Most practitioners want to comply.
The problem is that sometimes, compliance itself becomes confusing.
Many veterinary clinics struggle with BAI licensing requirements because some of the supporting documents can be difficult to secure. Requirements involving CNCs, DENR permits, local government classifications, zoning, waste management, and other certifications may not always be interpreted or implemented uniformly.
And when different offices do not seem to speak the same language, who ends up carrying the burden?
The veterinarian.
The practitioner goes from office to office.
One agency asks for a document.
Another office says that document may not apply.
Another asks for a classification that does not clearly fit a veterinary clinic.
Then another interpretation comes along.
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Meanwhile, the veterinarian is simply trying to run a clinic, treat patients, pay employees, keep the business alive, and comply with whatever is being required.
That is exhausting.
But what is even more painful is what happens when a complaint is filed.
Sometimes the original complaint may have little or nothing to do with licensing or certification.
Yet suddenly, every permit is examined.
Every documentary deficiency becomes a weapon.
The actual issue becomes secondary, while the veterinarian’s regulatory status becomes the casualty.
And in the eyes of the public, one missing or unresolved document can suddenly erase years of legitimate professional work.
You are no longer seen as the veterinarian who treated thousands of animals.
You are no longer the employer who created jobs.
You are no longer the professional who invested millions into improving a facility.
You are simply branded with one devastating word:
Illegal.
Imagine hearing that after everything you sacrificed.
After years of studying.
After years of saving.
After nights spent inside the clinic.
After emergency calls, difficult surgeries, deaths you carried home emotionally, employees you supported, taxes you paid, equipment you purchased, and a practice you slowly built from nothing.
Then suddenly, because of a regulatory requirement that may itself have been difficult to understand or obtain, everything you worked for is questioned.
That hurts.
And it destroys morale.
There is a point when practitioners begin asking themselves:
Why should I continue improving my clinic?
Why should I invest more?
Why should I expand?
Why should I build a better hospital if one regulatory misunderstanding can make everything I have built look illegitimate?
That is dangerous for the profession.
Because veterinary medicine cannot progress when practitioners are afraid to grow.
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This is not a call to remove regulation.
We need regulation.
We need standards.
We need accountability.
Animal welfare matters. Public health matters. Environmental compliance matters. Professional responsibility matters.
But regulation must also be understandable.
It must be consistent.
It must be achievable.
And most importantly, the agencies responsible for implementing it must be coordinated.
Veterinarians should not be forced to navigate a maze where one office says one thing and another says something different.
There must be a clear and concrete classification for veterinary clinics.
There must be clear requirements.
There must be proper coordination between the Bureau of Animal Industry, DENR, local government units, and other concerned agencies.
There should be a pathway where a veterinarian can simply ask:
“What exactly do I need to comply?”
And receive one clear answer.
Because practitioners are not asking for special treatment.
We are not asking to be above the law.
We are asking for a fair opportunity to follow it.
Most veterinarians want to do things properly.
Give us clear rules, and we will comply.
Give us reasonable requirements, and we will work toward them.
Tell us what needs to be corrected, and most practitioners will correct it.
But please do not allow unclear systems, conflicting interpretations, and regulatory gaps to destroy professionals who have spent their lives trying to build something legitimate.
A veterinary clinic is not merely a permit hanging on a wall.
Behind it are years of sacrifice.
Behind it are families.
Employees.
Patients.
Clients.
Loans.
Investments.
Sleepless nights.
And a veterinarian who once had enough passion to believe that building a practice was worth it.
I sincerely hope these concerns can be ironed out.
Not because veterinarians want less regulation.
But because good regulation should help good practitioners comply.
It should guide them.
It should correct them when necessary.
It should protect the public.
But it should never make well-meaning professionals feel hopeless simply because the road to compliance was never made clear.
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Do not make veterinarians lose the will to build.
Because once that drive disappears, the profession loses something that no permit can easily restore.
Dr. Geoff Carullo is a Fellow and the current President of the Philippine College of Canine Practitioners.
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