GVH Mission Statement

We are committed to

treating our patients with

superior professional skills,

compassionate hearts,

gentle hands and kindly words.

A number of people have enquired about the origin of our mission statement, which is displayed in the waiting room, so we thought we’d tell you about its genesis.

Several years ago, when we undertook the renovations of the building, we also instituted a general facelift: it was around that time that we organised our new uniforms, designed our GVH logo and so on. It seemed that formulating a mission statement or a vision statement (actually, we weren’t quite sure what the difference was!) would be a good idea, to encapsulate what our overall philosophy is.

This may sound like an easy task, but as it turned out that was far from the case. The hours that Elisabeth, Barry, Max and Pam spent discussing it stretched on and on until they seemed endless.

Commitment and dedication seemed important things to include, because that’s what the GVH staff have.

We insist on maintaining the highest professional standards in the treatments that we offer to our patients, and in promoting continuing education among all the staff, so that seemed important to include. We also felt the need to include our unashamed love of animals and commitment to their welfare, because that’s really the underlying reason why each of us has this vocation.

So over several months (or was it years??!!) we ran through what seemed like endless possibilities, most of which included words like excellence, commitment, professional, superior, welfare, compassion- but none of the suggestions we each came up with sounded right, and eventually the idea died a natural death. It looked as though we would be “vision-statement-less” forever more, and for several months we didn’t discuss it at all. Then one day Pam happened to be reading a book by Jane Goodall, “Reason for Hope”. As many of you will know, Jane Goodall is the English scientist who did groundbreaking research on chimpanzee behaviour in Tanzania in the 1960’s, living with a group of the animals for several years.

She was responsible for turning the scientific world on its head by necessitating a redefinition of the

concept of what it is to be human: previously the premeditated use of tools in a problem-solving way had been used by anthropologists as the thing which set humans aside from the animal kingdom, but Jane observed her chimps doing just that, so many other scientists had their preconceptions about the

superiority of our species destroyed.

She has since set up a permanent research base dedicated to the study and welfare of the chimps, and is also active in the conservation of other animal species and the natural environment in general, as well as being vocal on issues of world peace.

In her book, Jane relates an occasion when she was asked to address the congregation of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on St Francis’ Day, the day when people are invited to bring in their animals to be blessed at the altar. During her address she quoted a prayer by Albert Schweitzer, the famous German doctor and humanitarian who worked with African people and also became an early advocate for animal rights. The text is below, and as you can see we unashamedly plagiarised it,

because it immediately seemed right for what we were trying to convey.

We hope you enjoy reading the full text.

For animals that are overworked,

underfed, and cruelly treated;

for all wistful creatures in captivity

that beat their wings against bars;

for any that are hunted or lost

or deserted or frightened or hungry;

for all that must be put to death…

and

for those who deal with them

we ask a heart of