Gallatin Vet, Baber, Arrested and Charged
Submitted by For The Love of the Dog
The cruel Gallatin, Tennessee vet, William Baber, who first came under scrutiny when an undercover tape was released exposing his cruel euthanasia methods has now been arrested and is facing 12 misdemeanor charges.
In early November, Baber was videotaped euthanizing dogs and cat by the cruel ‘heart stick’ method without sedating them. Some of the animals suffered cruelly up to 30 minutes before they succumbed to death.
He was shown even stepping on the animals to immobilize them for the injection.
Initially suspended then reinstated, he was finally suspended again and fined in mid-December. The suspension then was to continue until April when the Tennessee Board of Veterinary Medicine would meet again and decide whether to revoke his license permanently.
“Although the veterinarian board had already taken their action relating to Dr. Baber’s license, that doesn’t relieve us of our obligation and our duty to follow through with the law,” Sumner County District Attorney Thomas Dean said. “Where a law’s been broken, we are required to follow through with an appropriate prosecution and that’s what we’re doing.”
Now he’s been arrested and charged. The counts stem from evidence shown on the undercover videotape.
Two counts for the way the cat were treated. Two counts for the euthanasia method used 
on the dogs. Four more counts because he didn’t check for sign of life after the injection violating the humane death act. Two more counts because the animals were not sedated prior to the ‘heart stick’ violating the state’s euthanasia law. Two counts for falsifying government records.
He will be in court on January 16 facing the charges, officially listed as;
He faces a possibility of up to 11 months 29 days in jail for each charge or as little as just probation.
As he said as his disciplinary hearing, Baber still stands by his statement that “he was unaware of state law that prohibited heart shot euthanasias without sedation.”
The statue was changed in 1982 and Baber blames the board for not keeping him updated on the change.
As I said then and will repeat again, maybe I’m wrong but I thought it was up to medical professionals to keep up with medical happenings through medical journals, associations, etc. His excuse s so typical of so many in society today, place the blame on someone else. Well, for all Baber’s blame placing, it looks like the Board ultimately placed the blame squarely where it belonged, on his shoulders! Any medical professional that can’t keep up with what’d going on doesn’t deserve to keep practicing!
Source - WSMV
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