As a lifelong Virginia resident and pet guardian, I would never allow my canines and felines to be treated at Virginia Tech UNLESS I knew that a fully licensed veterinarian were providing direct care to my animal family member. If a resident (NOT as student) were to perform an exam or procedure on my pet, I would expect to be informed and asked to sign a written consent ONLY if a licensed veterinarian were on sight and supervising the entire exam or procedure from start to finish without interruption. Virginia Tech's vet school should operate like a teaching hospital for human patients. After all, pets are equally important members of our family and sometimes they even provide medical support to their humans ( those patients with heart conditions, epilepsy, blindness, etc.). Thank God and thank Dog for Lee Henkel's Change.org petition to open the eyes of all of us unsuspecting pet guardians. Change must be made immediately at all vet schools to save the lives of our animal family members and to make Virginia Tech's vet school a shining example and gold standard of the way ethical institutions function and operate. The only acceptable correction to the vet school's practices is to REQUIRE written informed consent from the patient's human that a licensed veterinarian will assist and supervise (DIRECTLY ON SITE) a resident's medical treatment of an animal.

"Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind."  --  Albert Schweitzer