NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a macabre story about a locum veterinary nurse with 2 years experience who remains anonymous to protect her identity because of a feared backlash, who reportedly used a scalpel to cut off the heads of two dead cats so that she could take them home and display the skulls. The heads were kept in a freezer for three weeks.
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| Veterinary nurse decapitated 2 dead cats and took the heads home. Image: MikeB |
She said that she meant no disrespect to the animals and that she appreciated their bodies. I will presume that the cats were euthanised by a veterinarian or a vet nurse at the clinic or hospital where she works.
The veterinary nurse was before a misconduct panel at a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons committee.
She's been referred to as 'B'. She's been charged with removing heads from dead bodies of cats other than for veterinary purposes.
One of her jobs was to sort out animal bodies stored in a walk-in freezer before collection by crematorium services.
It's reported that she asked if she could remove the heads from stray dead cats and she claimed that she was given permission by a member of the staff. She then took two bodies into the prep room and removed their heads with a scalpel before taking the heads home in a cadaver bag which she placed into her freezer.
She said that she had an interest in the heads and that she has some mealworms "which ate away at the cat's flesh, leaving the skull".
It was suggested to her that stray cats should be afforded the same dignity as pets and in response, it is alleged that she said "strays were not anyone's property."
She thought that she hadn't done anything disrespectful. In fact, it's reported that she thought it was a way of "appreciating the body". She accepted, however, that others might have a different viewpoint.
She disagreed that there were animal welfare issues. She said: "I would like to make it clear that I have the utmost respect for animals and actually consider cats to be my favourite domestic animal and I own three cats myself. I consider my own cats to be family members and am incredibly attached to them. I do my best every day to make sure they are happy and healthy.”
She added: “For me the keeping of ashes and bones is meant to be an appreciation of the animal or person, it was in no way meant to be disrespectful.
“Professionally, I am hugely interested in anatomy and learn best visually, so have always been interested in and keen to be involved with veterinary post-mortems. Bones and skulls are especially interesting to me.
“I have heard many stories of other professionals unknown to me who do similar things in various ways, which include taking whole skeletons from strays, bringing in road kill and dealing with them in a veterinary environment, taking strays and/or wildlife to be used for taxidermy, also of cat cadavers used in approved educational ways to be dissected.
“Alongside this, I have seen adverts for live human and animal dissection that is used for entertainment on TV, and am aware of celebrated artworks involving body parts of animals and cadavers.”
She admits now that she feels guilt and shame and embarrassment. And she is deeply apologetic for her misjudgement. The committee found her guilty of serious professional misconduct but accepted that an official reprimand was adequate punishment. They told her that her behaviour had been inappropriate but not scandalous and that she was unlikely to repeat it.
The committee chairman said that she had an obligation to treat the cadavers with respect but had not done so and had abused her professional position.
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