State Orders Cat Doctor to Give Up Veterinary License and Close Clinic

A veterinarian accused of negligence and unprofessional conduct has been ordered to relinquish his license, shut his Ventura clinic and pay $23,000 in fines and court costs.

The decision, handed down Aug. 27 by the state’s Board of Examiners in Veterinary Medicine, found Thomas James Bulgin, operator of the All Cats Clinic, was negligent in the treatment of six animals in his care from August 1991 to December 1993.

Bulgin was given 30 days to appeal the board’s revocation of his license to practice veterinary medicine in California and his permit to operate the clinic, located at 4587 Telephone Road.

Bulgin was fined $5,000 by the board and told to pay court expenses amounting to $18,161.50. A letter containing the board’s decision was sent earlier this week to pet owners who had filed complaints.

Bulgin’s attorney, Richard Hanawalt, said Wednesday that he will petition the Sacramento-based agency to reconsider its ruling. Concurrently, he plans to file an appeal in Ventura County Superior Court seeking to overturn the board’s decision.

Bulgin said the board ruling against him was ridiculous.

“Perhaps I offered too much competition for my compatriots,” he said in a telephone interview.

Hanawalt said the board’s decision results from a conspiracy by competing veterinarians to eliminate his low-cost cat clinic, which has treated more than 72,000 animals since its doors opened in 1988.

“The number of cats he routinely handles is dramatically beyond any other clinic in the area,” Hanawalt said. “He is also thoroughly disliked because he doesn’t partake in needless tests.”

Hanawalt said the decision against his client is unusually harsh, because findings of negligence and unprofessional conduct typically result in a suspension of a veterinarian’s license rather than a revocation.

Owners of pets that have died, allegedly after being treated by Bulgin, were pleased by the board’s decision.

“I feel like I’ve been vindicated,” said Elena Jarvis, a part-time journalism professor at Oxnard College and Pasadena City College, who testified against Bulgin before the board.

Jarvis alleged that in 1991 her cat was misdiagnosed by Bulgin as having the flu, when it had actually swallowed antifreeze. The cat died a short time later, after a second veterinarian had determined it had ingested the poisonous substance.

A second pet owner alleged that Bulgin left a sick cat in the care of an employee unqualified to perform veterinary procedures, and a third person claimed that the veterinarian performed an unnecessary neutering and declawing operation on an animal brought to the clinic after it was hit by a car, resulting in its death.

“I’m real glad other cat lovers won’t have to go through what I went through, both emotionally and financially,” Jarvis said. “For many of these people in the accusation, these animals are their life.”

One of Bulgin’s supporters, Harry Naughton of Ventura, who works as a cook in Montecito and has six cats under Bulgin’s care, says the charges against the veterinarian are groundless.

“All this is about is a lot of vindictive (rivals) who are up in arms against him,” Naughton said. “He’s taking all their business away because he’s not charging the exorbitant prices others charge.”

“They’re not all perfect, nor is any doctor. Someone makes a few mistakes and he has to get his license taken away,” Naughton said.

Bulgin received his degree in veterinary medicine from UC Davis in June 1969. After being licensed in California and Idaho, he served in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps from 1969 to 1971.

Before opening the All Cats Clinic in 1988, Bulgin worked at an animal clinic in Oxnard, and had managed veterinary practices in the Bay Area and in Idaho.

Without disclosing the reason, agency documents state that Bulgin entered into an agreement with the Board of Examiners on July 18, 1979, to stop practicing veterinary medicine in California for two years.

Bulgin remained on probation by the licensing board for an additional two years after the state allowed him to resume his practice.