Veterinary Homeopath Needs Help

Letter from Irene de Villiers
Well I hoped this could not happen.  I know the Washington veterinary practice law by heart, and am careful not to do anything I may not do. In short it says one may not prognose, diagnose or treat in the following areas for a fee (but it’s okay to help someone else treat their animal gratuitously):
* Disease
* Defect
* Deformity
* Wound
* Injury

It says nothing about it being bad to build health, prevent disease, do good nutrition etc.

So my consults are styled around this. I have the client sign that:
“Please know that I am not a licensed veterinarian (DVM), but a veterinary homeopath (D.Vet.Hom). So my training excludes surgery and does not allow me to write prescriptions, diagnose and treat in this country/state of WA. You will be doing any treatment based on advice, information and recommendations from me that you choose to use or not. I shall recommend you see your vet for certain things if needed and it is always your prerogative to do so”
…and the matched remedy (computer analysis being the only fee item) is intended to help build health, if used by the client at their discretion. My helping them to treat their cat is not charged for and may continue for months.
That has to be agreed before I do anything else.

All well and good I thought.
Apparently not any more. (It was before).

Dept of health of WA has filed allegations against me that I “offered to treat an animal patient for a fee in about July 2012” without a vet license.
and that what I do is “against the public interest and welfare” so I must pay $1000 a day then jail time after 2nd day from then – so they accuse.
I sent in an application for more time to answer this allegation that has no details or explanation of what they are on about and which came out of the blue…… I never offer to do the treating, much less for a fee. Supposedly they allow extensions for health issues (which I have and supported with evidence).

BUT – Late Monday I got a judge’s order refusing extension of time. The default is then that I mail an answer to the allegation to arrive by FRIDAY, or lose by default. After that if I answer in time saying the right stuff – it leads to an Administrative Hearing (AH) before a AH Law judge, and there may be more legal proceedings.

They said some other nasty and contradicting things in the order like that my request for clarity of the allegation ( as Wa law says I have a right to) is an “answer” thus I do not deserve the extension. (No there is no logic there, and that is the problem. One of many legal quagmires now being used. The lawyer politely calls them “procedural issues”)

Essentially this is out of my league to handle, I do not know how the Administrative Law system works, what its rules are, how to present evidence or motions, and what to present, how they interpret stuff, how to handle “procedural issues” …..so I realized I must have a lawyer to have any hope of avoiding free room and board somewhere with striped windows where they do not believe in gluten free meals or cats. I would not last; I NEED help to show I am not guilty; they are not hearing what *I* say. (I suspect they have already decided not to listen, it is the attitude in the crazy sounding contradictory documents).

It was a heck of a 24 hrs from then yesterday. A nice guy I met recently, studying for board exams in law (but not Administrative law – he’s doing criminal and civil law) pulled out some stops to ask law professors he knows for a lawyer recommendation for me (there is a law school here) as I had NO luck hunting down ANYone who knows Admin law much less as it pertains to animals, and he got an animal law professor to recommend Adam Karp of Seattle, animal lawyer, (rated by his clients as 5 out of 5 on the internet I see!) who answered my email Mon night within the hour (how nice), and I sent all the documents and he got back to me Tuesday evening to say:
* He will cut his 300/hr fee in half for me to 150/hr and can get started with a retainer of $1500 to start off.
And he gave me some immediate pointers to work on –
Today I managed to scrape $1000 together loaned against my house, I cannot manage the rest, I have no assets to sell thanks to long illness.

He has already given me quite a bit of advice.
There is some bad news as well – that the Admin people are now (mis-)using the human medical laws against alternative health people in WA cases of claimed vet practice without license like mine. (Those WA people rules are draconian to say the least and I in no way thought they’d be relevant – and hope a good lawyer can argue them away).

Well, I would dearly like to take up Mr Adam Karp on his offer, said I did and sent the $1000 I could manage, not enough even to start though – and truly believe I can not do this without a lawyer at this stage and am somewhat panicked (to say the least?) by the crummy deadline they suddenly imposed for first filings.

I can not ask anyone for a loan as I do not have any income from which to know I could repay it. (Suggestion: NEVER get too ill to earn an income!) I do not want to beg, but I do not know what else to do today. I suppose I am just hoping for the kind of generous kindness that could help me through this – if enough people managed a bit of help (even if small like ten or fifteen dollars say) it may add up enough to get me a lawyer started to do what I cannot do for myself in this Admin law case of WA Health Dept against me..

If you’d like to do something anonymously, you could send it direct to my lawyer using my name as the “account” (Irene K de Villiers) being the case name. Otherwise my Paypal account (at PayPalladiumcom) works on either of my email addresses. I would be so grateful for the help.

Paypal:    [email protected]

or

My lawyer:
Animal Law Offices of Adam P. Karp
114 W. Magnolia St., Ste. 425
Bellingham, WA 98225

The guy at the Health dept who says my work is not in the public interest or welfare is David Magby.
Gee …..how charming to say so before there is even the first piece of evidence presented? Some law!
If anyone wants to write something to the contrary, please feel free, my address is below. I’d love to show that the kind of thing I do is actually seen as beneficial.

Examples of results here at Hpathy:
https://hpathy.com/veterinary-homeopathy/feline-infectious-peritonitis-fip-case-management-and-suggested-new-rubrics-developed-from-500-cases/

So sorry to have to even share my current predicament. I hope it will end up all coming right – I believe it can – I do need help to achieve it. Please.
My 3 cats of course are purring up storms to help me feel loved and level-headed, not the easiest thing at the moment.

Namaste,
Irene

REPLY TO: [email protected]
Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.