State suspends local veterinarian's license

                 Friday, August 24, 2001

                 Steven Ginsberg accepts sanctions, but denies harming

                 animals. BY ED FINNERTY

                 KALAMAZOO GAZETTE

                 A Kalamazoo veterinarian had his license suspended for

                 one month and was put on probation by state regulators

                 who found he used Superglue while declawing cats and

                 delayed euthanizing animals, among other findings.

                 Steven Ginsberg was handed a 30-day license

                 suspension, to begin Oct. 1, and was placed on two

                 years' probation and fined $2,000 by the Michigan

                 Department of Consumer & Industry Services Thursday.

                 Ginsberg, a local veterinarian for 31 years, did not admit

                 to any wrongdoing, and said he agreed to the sanctions

                 to end two years of wrangling with the state over his

                 practices. "I basically said enough is enough and we will

                 plead no contest to this. I wasn't guilty of anything as far

                 as abusing animals," he said.

                 An investigation into Ginsberg's practice at Crestview

                 Animal Hospital on Gull Road , according to the state,

                 found he unlawfully delegated veterinary medicine tasks

                 to unlicensed individuals, failed to properly sterilize

                 equipment and follow hygiene standards, used Superglue

                 in his procedure to declaw cats, dispensed expired

                 medication, failed to properly store and track

                 medications and delayed euthanizing animals on a

                 number of occasions.

                 "No animals ever were in this hospital suffering and just

                 sitting there," Ginsberg said of the findings. "I can go

                 through every one of those accusations and defend

                 myself, I think appropriately.

                 "Nothing that I did with any of those things ever hurt any

                 animals. ... To go any further, it just would have cost me

                 bundles of money."

                 Under a consent order accepted by Ginsberg and the

                 Michigan Board of Veterinary Medicine Discipline

                 Subcommittee, Ginsberg's practice will be reviewed

                 quarterly by a Board of Veterinary Medicine member. In

                 addition to paying the fine and serving his suspension and

                 probation, Ginsberg also must attend continuing

                 education programs and local veterinarian association

                 meetings, and must provide the state with a report on his

                 controlled substances. The state began investigating

                 Ginsberg after a former employee accused him of

                 punching a wounded dog at his clinic. Other employees

                 and pet owners also made complaints. Ginsberg denied

                 neglecting or abusing any animals and said the

                 complaints originated with an employee he had fired.

                 ED FINNERTYcan be reached at 388-8551 or

                 efinnerty@kalamazoogazette.com.