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Isabella Bustamante

Professor Kate Kimball

ENC 2135

13 November 2022

Mental Health Effects on the Veterinary Shortage

In a world where the topic of mental health has risen in conversations and societal

pressures are more acknowledged, it is crucial for people to understand that mental health can be

incredibly impactful to not only people but their environments. Veterinarians especially have had

an enormous blow to their profession due to mental health struggles caused by their field. There

has been a shortage of veterinarians since the beginning of the profession and over time

countless reasons have impacted that shortage. But the main prevalent issue that has remained

since the beginning of the profession is the mental stress and burnout veterinarians experience in

their professional lives. I will analyze two artifacts that are related to the mental health of

veterinarians and the impact it creates on the veterinary shortage. Their different perspectives

and anecdotes will help create a clearer understanding of how veterinarians are affected mentally

in their day-to-day job while also connecting those mental health challenges to the veterinary

shortage. In her passionate speech, Melanie Bowden expresses her emotional struggles as a

veterinarian by the usage of vivid imagery to immerse listeners into a day in her overwhelming

profession and logos, while Sarah Zhang uses emotional appeals, logos, and anecdotes from a

multitude of people to convey all sides of the story regarding the veterinary shortage and the

effect it is inducing on the world.

The first artifact up for discussion is “What Being a Veterinarian Really Takes” by

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Melanie Bowden, which is an oral presentation given at a

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TEDTalk Conference. The presentation presents the daily life of Melanie Bowden in order to

convey the mental health struggles she would face due to the root cause being her professional

life. This presentation evaluates her mental health struggles and the issues her mental health had

created within her workplace. Ethos is gained instantly because her speech is about mental health

in the veterinary field, and she is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. The target audience is the

general population because she presents at an event open to the public and she elaborates and

provides background knowledge for the audience members that have no prior knowledge of the

profession. As a presentation for the general public, her speech utilizes her introduction as the

place where she can introduce the profession to the audience and explain what veterinarians

typically do. She also uses statistical information in her introduction to further elaborate on the

life of a veterinarian and then utilizes the statistical segment of her speech to segway into a

mental health discussion by discussing the issue of the veterinary shortage. The presentation

initially focuses on logos by defining a veterinarian and what a veterinarian does, and then shifts

focus to statistics relating to the profession which also implores the use of logos. An example of

the usage of logos through statistical information is when she presents the fact that more

veterinarians are leaving the field than coming into the field and provides the following rate, “It's

about 5% attrition rate right now.” (Bowden, 00:01:47) Her approach of adding statistics is beneficial to

gain the confidence the audience has in her reliability and credibility. It also provided a beautiful transition

into the statistics regarding mental health. Her transition is as follows, “Of the veterinarians who have died

since 2010, 10% have committed suicide.” (Bowden, 00:02:11) Since this is a fact, it is the use of logos.

However, since suicide is such a heavy topic it automatically evokes emotion in the audience which is the

usage of pathos. She continues her presentation by speaking aloud a personal anecdote regarding a typical

day in her life as a veterinarian. Her storytelling capabilities are able to provide vivid imagery in order to
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immerse the audience into a day in her life. By doing so, she is able to express how her day is a

rollercoaster ride of emotions, from the death of a dog in critical condition after failed CPR and then

entering the next room where a family has just adopted a new puppy. She introduces another personal

anecdote of how badly her mental health would take a toll because people who could not financially

support an animal, would adopt an animal, and then not have the finances to pay for their healthcare. This

led to her having to inform the owner that the dog is suffering in pain and that the only option was to

euthanize the dog. All around it was a terrible situation that has a huge emotional impact on the audience

listening. An example of an impactful statement Melanie Bowden makes is, “There is nothing more soul-

crushing in life than having the skills and ability to help something helpless, and you can't do it, because

someone can't afford treatment.” (Bowden, 00:12:29-00:12:39) Her emotional appeals and use of heavy

phrases and words such as “soul-crushing” is the use of pathos to create an even larger impact on the

audience. The audience is able to be impacted so greatly because of her use of pathos and logos which also

drives her message even more.

“The Great Veterinary Shortage,” written by staff writer Sarah Zhang, is a news article published

by The Atlantic. The article focuses on the impact of veterinary medicine due to the pandemic, while also

focusing on the mental health impacts the veterinarians underwent before and after COVID-19. The article

hooks in the readers with its interesting headline, as most people do not know that there is a veterinary

shortage. As an article, it is trying to inform the audience of an important event occurring that the general

population should know about. The article analyzes the lack of availability veterinary hospitals and clinics

have due to understaffing from the high turnover rate due to mental decline. Sarah Zhang uses an anecdote

from an interview with Michelle Stokes, a pet owner whose cat was ill but was not able to be seen by any

veterinarian in their area. (Zhang) This story creates a beautiful transition and interesting hook to catch the

readers into reading more of the article about why Michelle Stokes’ cat was not able to get an appointment.
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The emotion in this story of a worried pet owner who is scared something is going to happen to her sick cat

because her cat cannot be seen by the veterinarian evokes pathos in the audience. Sarah Zhang transitions

from this catching story into the veterinary shortage and how it has been affected by the pandemic.

Traditionally, a news article would include graphics or citations from credible sources, but in the age of the

internet, this article links any statistics she mentions to the direct source (which is more in-depth) by

underlining the statistics to indicate it is being hyperlinked. An example of this is as follows.

“Veterinarians, too, are dealing with burnout, and broader risks to mental health. Their turnover

rate is 16 percent, much higher than it is for doctors in human health care.” (Zhang) Sarah

Zhang’s use of this statistic is a use of logos to inform the audience that veterinary technicians

are leaving the field at a high influx because of mental distress. The underline of the word

“doctors” also indicates that it is hyperlinked to a source. Upon clicking on the link, the audience

can read more information about the statistic and establish the credibility of the quote which

establishes ethos within the article. Sarah Zhang also briefly touches on the suicide crisis that

overtook the veterinary field by mentioning the statistics regarding how much more likely it is

for a veterinarian to commit suicide compared to the general population. Her use of statistics

throughout the article adds to her logos and it adds to her credibility as a writer since her article

is very professionally researched (which is important for a news article). Sarah also includes,

“Jurney, the neurology specialist, is also president of the nonprofit Not One More Vet, which

operates a crisis hotline and gives out emergency grants to veterinarians who need help. In the

past two years, she says, “the demand for our services went up tenfold.” (Zhang) This quote that

is included in the article is able to connect the audience with a deeper understanding of how

serious the mental health crisis that is occurring in veterinary medicine is. Throughout the article,

Sarah Zhang established a neutral tone, which is crucial for a news article, while also conveying
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her argument through her use of anecdotes to convey the emotion she cannot since her writing

has to be objective. Her article which is littered with anecdotes, such as an anecdote from Lisa

Moses (a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine who has struggled with mental health and the impact

her career has had on her life), is able to create the emotion which leads to the necessary pathos

needed in her article. Her use of statistics (logos), anecdotes (pathos), and credible sources

(ethos), is able to create a well-developed article on how the veterinary shortage is impacted by

mental health struggles.

The artifacts are similar to each other, while also differing from each other in a variety of

ways, such as their use of anecdotes to their use of logos. While both focus on mental health and

the impact it has on veterinarians, the second artifact goes more in-depth with the veterinary

shortage crisis. Melanie Bowden from the first artifact is trying to explain why veterinarians

have such a demanding time mentally by telling her own story, while only briefly covering the

shortage of veterinarians. Sarah Zhang emphasizes the concern and impact of the veterinary

shortage due to the mental decline of the veterinarians. Both the news article and the presentation

use anecdotes to convey the emotional impact of mental distress. The presentation uses this to

convey Melanie Bowden’s distress in her profession while it is used in the news article to convey

the emotion of a pet owner who is worried about her animal not receiving treatment due to

understaffing. The news article is also more researched and contains many statistics to provide

evidence of understaffing and the suffering mental health effects a veterinarian experiences. On

the other hand, the presentation focuses on the use of pathos and emotion rather than logos to

convey a stronger personal message regarding Melanie’s own mental health challenges. The

presentation also takes a different approach by providing necessary background information to

the audience in order for them to be able to follow along with the story. The news article has to
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have an engaging hook in order to keep the readers from clicking off the article, so Sarah Zhang

starts the article by portraying a captivating and emotional story. Both use anecdotes in their own

ways to provide the audience with pathos and strike them with emotion. Logos is more of a

center point for the news article though (although it is used in the introduction of the presentation

to provide background information). The presentation also gains ethos immediately because

Melanie Bowden is a veterinarian, while the news article has to gain the trust of the audience by

using and citing credible people and sources which is not something very prevalent in the

presentation. The presentation uses a first-person perspective as it is a personal anecdote and an

emotional tone of voice since it is her own story about her challenges. This is unlike the news

article which establishes a neutral, unbiased tone as it delivers the facts and information

regarding the veterinary shortage. Although both artifacts have similarities such as the fact they

both use anecdotes, they have vastly different aspects regarding the tone of voice, use of

rhetorical devices, and how they use anecdotes to affect the audience.

The veterinary profession has been struggling to gain more of a workforce while more

people who enter the field simultaneously leave. Burnout and mental fatigue lead veterinary

professionals into a headspace that is not safe for themselves or the profession. As the decline in

veterinarians and veterinary staff increases every year, it needs to be established to the general

population that this is a crisis, and it needs to be acted upon immediately in order to see a change

in the future of animal health care. If the decline continues, less quality and quantity of health

care will be provided, which means that our pets at home will risk less opportunity for high-

quality treatment. While the issue may seem small now, it will only grow in the future as less

health care is accessible because fewer veterinarians are available.

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Works Cited

Bowden, Melanie. “What Being a Veterinarian Really Takes: TedxCoeurdalene.” Ted, Ted Conferences

LLC,

https://www.ted.com/talks/melanie_bowden_dvm_what_being_a_veterinarian_really_takes.

Zhang, Sarah. “The Great Veterinary Shortage.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 July 2022,

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/07/not-enough-veterinarians-animals/661497/.