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Powerful Vet Suicide Prevention Campaign

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An official Sophie’s Legacy landscape campaign graphic featuring a blue background with the slogan Cats have nine lives, your vet only has one.

Cats Have Nine Lives… Your Vet Only Has One

The grieving parents of a young Australian veterinarian who died by suicide after facing verbal abuse and threats from an angry pet owner have launched a powerful new campaign to protect the people who save our pets.

Dr. Sophie Putland tragically died in 2021 at just 33 years old. The devastating loss prompted her parents, Garry and Kate Putland, alongside her brothers and loved ones, to establish Sophie’s Legacy. Their mission became urgent after discovering that professionals employed in the veterinary industry are four times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.

Since its inception, Sophie’s Legacy has grown into Australia's leading advocacy voice for veterinarians, veterinary nurses, and clinic support staff.

A Bitter-Sweet Message for a Complex Crisis

“We’re doing everything we can to make the veterinary profession mentally healthier,” says Sophie’s father, Garry Putland.

“By saying ‘Cats have nine lives, your vet and their team only have one’ – it just puts it out there that the people treating your pet only have one life.”

Sophie’s mother, Kate Putland, shares that veterinarians and clinic staff still regularly face unacceptable levels of aggressive behaviour from clients.

“We’ve had vets and their teams forced to call police because the abuse has become so bad,” Kate reveals. “We cannot ever accept that as being ‘part of the job’ – vets and the incredible nurses, reception teams, orderlies, and cleaners all deserve to be safe at work. My daughter’s legacy is to make sure we get that message through to everyone.”

Taking Advocacy to Australian Streets

Since it was established, Sophie’s Legacy has successfully lobbied for parliamentary inquiries and industry-led changes to make the profession safer for existing teams and more attractive to newcomers.

Now, they are taking the message directly to the public with a major nationwide campaign rollout:

✔ Café Takeaway Cups: Custom coffee cups featuring the slogan are launching in cafés across Australia.
✔ Street and Park Art: The powerful message will appear printed on footpaths in dog parks and high-foot-traffic city streets across both regional and metro hubs.
✔ Public Billboards: Prominent billboards are going live in high-visibility areas.
✔ In-Clinic Lifelines: Every veterinary clinic in Australia will receive campaign posters, stickers, and leaflets featuring a QR code linking directly to support resources on the Sophie's Legacy website.
✔ Digital Reach: A major social media campaign is launching simultaneously across all major platforms.
An informative Sophie's Legacy poster highlighting that 50 percent of veterinarians show signs of burnout and 1 in 6 experience suicidal thoughts.

Continuing Sophie's Legacy

“It’s a simple, yet bittersweet message about a complex problem in the profession,” Garry says.

“But it won’t always be a problem because Sophie’s Legacy will continue to stand up for our vets and vet teams to make this incredible profession safer and more attractive to people thinking about joining this rewarding career."

While the foundation has already driven significant positive change for the Australian veterinary community, the Putland family stresses that there is still plenty of work left to be done.

“We will keep working with governments, industry leaders, vet clinic owners, our vet teams, and the public to continue to save the people who save our pets and animals,” Garry says.

Support the Movement

To learn more about the campaign, access resources, or show your support for your local clinic team, visit sophieslegacy.com or follow the movement on social media:

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