Sept. 2020
PLEASE ALWAYS TAKE THE HIGH ROAD, BE POLITE, AND EDUCATE. NEVER THREATEN ANYONE.
The definition of a bully is, “a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable.”
Isn’t a declawing veterinarian a bully?
Declawing harms the health and well-being of innocent and vulnerable kittens and cats.
Dr Marie Breuker of Fremont Animal Hospital in Michigan submitted a statement in this 2020 PPO Link to the 2nd PPO that silenced us to help silence us in our advocacy against declawing. This is quite unusual because this PPO was submitted by the animal rescue director, not this declawing veterinarian.
There was also this email submitted as evidence in this PPO.
In this email, Dr Marie Breuker gave advice to a North Dakota declawing vet that we did a story about, on how to silence us.
The story that we did about this vet in ND was that she was offering a $55 declaw, was saying that she gives the cats that she declaws an injection called Meloxicam and said it is a 4 day injection, and not giving them any take home pain meds. According to 4 experienced veterinarians, there is no Meloxicam injection that lasts 4 days.
(Kathy, this veterinarian in ND is no long performing declaws at her practice. She now educates cat owners about declawing and counsels them about the humane alternatives. ) #KnowBetterDoBetter
Dr Marie Breuker wrote this, “I will fight bullies to the bitter end” when she referred to our Executive Director.
Here’s the email to the ND vet. 
Facts about Dr Marie Breuker and declawing.
*Dr Marie Breuker admitted to us in an email that she declaws cats and kittens for an animal rescue and she said that declawing causes “negative repercussions” and “negative side effects.”
* Dr Marie Breuker advertises her laser declawing services in this post on a public facebook page in West Michigan, for clients asking for a good vet to do a front declaw.
* Dr Marie Breuker has this info on her website under, “New Kitten, Now What” section. “We recommend declawing your cat as early as 12 weeks of age (must weigh at least 3lbs). This procedure, however, can also be performed later in life or at the same time as spaying or neutering.”
Who do you think is the bully?
WE are trying to SAVE innocent and vulnerable cats from this cruelty by educating the public. We shine light on how declawing vets promote declawing, lie about declawing, and how they are harming innocent cats by declawing them.
Dr Marie Breuker is making lots of money from mutilating and harming cats by burning off their much needed toe bones. She knows declawing is bad for cats and kittens yet she keeps doing it to cats and kittens.
THE DETAILS OF THE PPO
A Personal Protection Order (PPO) was filed in April 2020 by an animal rescue director in West Michigan. This PPO silenced us for 4 months. (We were silenced for 5 months by the same person in 2017)1st PPO to silence us
Dr Marie Breuker with Fremont Animal Hospital in Fremont, MI, declaws cats and kittens for this animal rescue. Dr Breuker submitted the note below to this PPO.
Dr Breuker also declaws cats for the public at her practice. Fremont Animal Hospital’s New Kitten, Now What section
Those that know better, do better.
We don’t understand why a veterinarian like Dr. Brueker, would go to such lengths to help silence us and try to keep us from educating the public about the negative and detrimental effects of amputating the toe bones off innocent cats.
But she did and this recent article in DVM360 might explain why she felt the need to go to such extremes in order to alleviate the stress she feels about going against her values.
Could that be what drove Dr. Breuker to make up these false and exaggerated accusations against us in this court document?
Here’s the paragraph from the story that is by 3 accomplished veterinarians. “Cats do not benefit from onychectomy (declawing).
Given that there are non-invasive alternatives, such as redirection of scratching behavior, environmental enrichment, and nail trimming or capping, it is difficult to support declawing on ethical or animal welfare grounds.
Indeed, veterinarians who declaw cats may experience moral stress because they may feel they are acting against their values. This stress may contribute to psychological morbidity and even mortality among veterinarians.”
Link to the story. DVM360, Aug. 2020, declawing story
Here are the FACTS about this issue.
The facts and truth about Dr Marie Breuker’s accusations in this letter that was submitted as evidence in the 2020 Personal Protection Order (PPO) that silenced us for 4 months.
- 1) Dr Marie Breuker– “Lori Shepler’s goal is not to end declawing of cats, it is to end the careers and ruin the lives of veterinarians that perform declaws. “
Our goal is to help end declawing by educating the public about how declawing is bad for cats and teach people about the easy, humane options like sturdy scratching posts, scratching pads, nail trims, Soft Paws, deterrents, etc.
We also shine light on all the lies, deception, and unethical things that declawing veterinarians do in regards to this inhumane amputation procedure.
We do not want to end the careers and ruin the lives of declawing veterinarians.
We have inspired many declawing vets to stop performing this inhumane amputation procedure and many of them are our friends and help us with information and advice for our advocacy. When they knew better, they did better.
- 2) Dr Marie Breuker – “The anti vs pro declaw debate is no different then pro or anti abortion or Republicans vs Democrats. This is a difference of opinion.” “You cannot force someone to change their core beliefs by intimidating them, but Lori Shepler makes it her life mission to try. “
Dr Marie Breuker sent us the comments below in an email in 2016 and she indicated that she knows that declawing has negative repercussions and negative side effects.
“Here at Fremont Animal Hospital we declaw cats using a laser as an elective surgery. We declaw cats and kittens for Lake Haven Rescue also. You will not change our minds on offering the surgery as a clinic, and unlikely to change Lake Havens position on declaws. Many Americans are lazy and many prefer declawed cats even with the knowledge of the negative repercussions. However, you have brought up many good points of things that I know to be true about the potential side effects of declawing cats. After you email we are going to be more proactive about educating clients of those negative side effects. We can always learn and improve. Thank you for your concerns. Marie Breuker DVM, Fremont Animal Hospital”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about declawing but not their own facts about it. It’s a fact that declawing has been proven to be bad for cats. We deal with facts and data about declawing. Here are all the FACTS about declawing. DECLAWING FACTS VS MYTHS
- 3) Dr Marie Breuker – “Lori Shepler uses force tactics to get her way by purposely ruining reputations, threatening, and harassing.”
We do not use force tactics to get our way. We have never threatened anyone. We always ask that people take the high road, be polite, and educate and if we see any mean or threatening comments on our pages we ask those people to edit them and if they don’t we delete them. Shining light on how declawing vets address this inhumane amputation procedure is not harassment and is protected by the highest rung of 1st Amendment protection. (ACLU 2018) Here’s the full ACLU document with Supreme Court rulings. https://citythekitty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ACLU-FINAL-AMICUS-BRIEF-compressed.pdf
We share things that declawing vets have on their websites and that declawing vets post on social media just like this vet does on her website and on a public facebook page.
If declawing vets are concerned about having a bad reputation of not caring about the welfare of cats by declawing them, then they should stop advertising this inhumane, cruel, and mutilating amputation procedure on their website, stop publicly promoting their declawing services on social media, and stop declawing.
- 4) Dr Marie Breuker – “She does this by stalking every place of my life she can.” “The most scary thing is that she has sent a mobile truck to sit in front of my clinic, proving that she has followers that have the ability to physically be at my work place, home, and grocery store.”
We do not know where she lives or where she shops for groceries and have never stalked her in those places and have never asked our followers to stalk her.
We did a mobile billboard campaign and our truck stopped out in front of Breuker’s animal hospital, Fremont Animal Hospital in Fremont, and many other declawing vet practices in West Michigan, Dr Pol’s practice in Weidman, and Lamar Advertising in Muskegon. This is completely legal. The truck stopped on public property for a few minutes, just enough to take a photo of the truck in front of these businesses.
- 5) Dr Marie Breuker– “She has supporters and followers that will constantly call my business (sometimes non-stop), email, leave reviews on my business, park in front of my clinic, and flood social media and websites with posts. “ “Many of her supporters have been threatening stating I should have my fingers cut off or die.”
We always ask our followers to take the high road, be polite, and educate. We cannot control what our followers do or say.
If Dr Breuker received threats she should contact the police and file a report. If she truly had all those things happen, she will have the call logs, emails, screenshots of all the social media and website posts, and reviews that she can show the police. Has Dr Breuker done that? How would Dr Breuker know if any of our supporters parked in front of her clinic?
- 6) Dr Marie Breuker – “My business as a veterinarian is based on trust and she is trying to ruin my reputation by stating I cannot be trusted to perform veterinary medicine.”
We post facts about declawing veterinarians and how they advertise, promote, and/or lie about declawing.
We’ve posted nothing but facts about Dr Marie Breuker and how she has a declawing on her website, how she advertised her laser declawing skills on social media when a cat owner asked for a cheap declaw on Facebook, how she admitted to us that declawing is bad for cats, and how she declaws cats and kittens for an animal rescue in her area before the cats are put up for adoption.
If a veterinarian will torture and harm cats by doing this barbaric and inhumane amputation procedure on cats when there is so much veterinary literature that proves how bad it is for cats and there are always easy, humane alternatives, then they can’t be trusted to put the welfare of innocent animals first.
- 7) Dr Marie Breuker – “I cannot appropriately advertise my business because of her stalking and harassment, loosing out on business.”
Dr Marie Breuker can still advertise her declawing services, we are not preventing her from doing that.
If Dr Marie Breuker is losing declawing business, then it’s because we are educating the public in her area about how this inhumane amputation procedure is bad for cats.
Usually when cat owners know better, they do better and don’t want their beloved cat to have their health and well-being harmed. Also, we are shining light on how declawing vets in West Michigan address this amputation procedure.
Our advocacy against declawing is protected by the highest rung of 1st Amendment protection.
- 8) Dr Marie Breuker – “The constant phone calls and emails have impacted my health. Veterinarians as a profession suffer quickly from compassion fatigue. We spend our lives preserving the health and well being of our patients and took an oath to do no harm. Lori’s goal, which is quite effective, is to wear down at my confidence and compassion for my profession, by constantly telling me I am causing my patients harm, pain, and suffering. “
If Dr Breuker truly has constant phone calls and emails, then she will have a record of those and should file a police report.
As the ACLU pointed out in the Amicus Brief that they wrote for us in 2018, “as a matter of law that restriction of speech cannot be justified by listeners reactions to the speech.”
In 2016, Dr Marie Breuker told us this in an email in 2016, “Many Americans are lazy and many prefer declawed cats even with the knowledge of the negative repercussions. However, you have brought up many good points of things that I know to be true about the potential side effects of declawing cats. After you email we are going to be more proactive about educating clients of those negative side effects.”
Declawing does NOT preserve the health and well being of a cat and in fact does the opposite.
If Dr Marie Breuker’s health is suffering then she might take a look at how declawing causes moral distress in veterinarians and veterinary professionals. Declawing contributes to moral stress in the veterinary profession
It surely can’t feel good going to work and mutilating and harming hundreds and hundreds of innocent cats and kittens by sadistically burning off their much needed toe bones and claws like Dr Marie Breuker has done over the years.
- 9) Dr Marie Breuker – “I understand the way the laws work, and with a penile system of law and freedom of speech it means that the only relief I can get from this constant harassment is with a PPO. Legally she can continue to do this, forever, without the PPO. I am imploring you, for my mental sanity, physical health, business, and clients and their pets, to uphold the PPO.”
Dr Breuker is correct and we thank her for reminding everyone that our advocacy against declawing and how we are going about it in a respectful and educational way is completely legal and protected by the 1st Amendment.
A new story came out in DVM360, August 2020, by some of her veterinary colleagues, that might explain why Dr Breuker feels the way she does.
“Cats do not benefit from onychectomy (declawing).
Given that there are non-invasive alternatives, such as redirection of scratching behavior, environmental enrichment, and nail trimming or capping, it is difficult to support declawing on ethical or animal welfare grounds.
Indeed, veterinarians who declaw cats may experience moral stress because they may feel they are acting against their values. This stress may contribute to psychological morbidity and even mortality among veterinarians.
From a DVM360 story, Aug. 2020 by Holly Cheever, DVM, Anne Fawcett, and Nicholas H. Dodman, in an August 2020 DVM360 story.
Here’s the link to the story- https://cdn.sanity.io/files/0vv8moc6/dvm360/e71670743cda8614ff60324f98e3e64f65f9bb05.pdf
This email from Dr Marie Breuker to another declawing vet in ND was included in this PPO. This declawing vet has since stopped declawing.
There are many lies in this email.
1) Dr Marie Breuker – “City the Kitty had people in Michigan calling us, stores, and emailing physical harm and death threats to all of us.”
We always ask for people to take the high road, be polite, and educate. We can’t control what people do. We NEVER asked people to call Dr Breuker, stores, and NEVER asked people to threaten anyone.
2) Dr Marie Breuker is confused about the PPOs. We were silenced by a PPO in 2017. The majority of information in the PPO was exaggerated and false. The PPO was dropped after both parties signed an agreement. We have honored the agreement but the animal rescue director has not.
3) Dr Marie Breuker – “I have many more harassment stories, on includes her going to Pet Supplies Plus CEO and Bissell foundation to have our spay neuter funding pulled from a program that does not do declaws, over $10,000 lost.”
I reached out to ask Cathy Bissell if this information in the first PPO was true and Cathy wrote this back to me, “She is wrong in saying that I was scared. I was bombarded but it was my choice to make the decision I made as I didn’t ever realize the suffering from declawing until it was brought to my attention. I did not receive threats but I was harassed all weekend that is true. I mentioned to you on the phone that I would never be bullied by anyone. My decision to not fund Cheryl came from understanding what declawing meant. I agree that it should not be done. I am sad that a rescue would declaw prior to adoption. I have already changed my grant application to reflect that decision. The more I understand the better I can be at what I do. I wish Cheryl could step back and look at the voice of reason.”
We only had correspondence with the Director of Services for Pet Supplies Plus and that was to ask if PSP would join our campaign to only use Adoption Partners who don’t condone or perform declawing.
4) Dr Marie Breuker – “Lori can do some damage, and I will fight bullies to the bitter end.”
Our mission is to end the inhumane and cruel act of declawing. Declawing damages the health and well being of a cat.
The definition of a bully is, “a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable.”
It is a fact that declawing harms the long term health and well-being of a cat.
Dr Marie Breuker declaws innocent and vulnerable cats and kittens before they are put up for adoption for an animal rescue.
Dr Marie Breuker declaws innocent and vulnerable cats for the public.
Dr Marie Breuker admitted to us in an email that declawing “negative repercussions” and “negative side effects.”
(The hearing for this PPO was held on August 27, 2020 and in the opening statement, the animal rescue director’s lawyer said that they are dropping the PPO because the behavior listed in the PPO has stopped.) Here’s the link to all the public documents in this 2nd PPO. Silenced a second time
When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something. John Lewis
***** Please always remember to take the high road, be polite, and educate. When you threaten them or are mean, it’s wrong, it hurts the cause, and they often blame your words on us and use them against us as they tried to in this PPO.