.
Cynthia Hockman (Hockaman?) who is the newest Animal Services vet whom I met at the West Valley shelter on the opening day last week, is Ron Mason’s former vet, and the person who refused to turn some of his cats’ medical records over to him after the October 11, 2007 bust!!! I mistakenly referred to her as Cynthia Hoffman in a previous post.
Hochman went immediately from her job as vet at Holiday Humane where she was Mason’s vet, to being the newest vet added to Animal Services about three weeks after the ACTF busted Mason. Hochman was Ron Mason’s vet!!
Mason now believes Hochman may have been the vet that turned him in to the ACTF!! Now she is part of the team gathering evidence to convict Mason. Mason said he was never going to mention anything about Hochman until now that she is working for the same organization that busted him.
Man, is this ever a conflict of interest and most definitely a breach of medical ethics and probably the law. This whole case gets more and more twisted and sicker by the minute.
Cynthia used to give Mason bottles of Amoxi medication to Mason, both with and without tags on them prior to the bust. This is the medication that ACTF confiscated from him and which will have her name on as Mason’s vet!!! No wonder the evidence has disappeared; apparently they are covering Hockman’s butt.
About two weeks before the bust, an employee from Holiday Humane called Mason and told him that he better hide his cats, that something was up. Mason was warned that something was coming down from someone who worked with Hochman. This is while she was still working as the main vet for Holiday Humane.
Immediately after the bust, Mason went to Holiday Humane and requested copies of his vet records from Hockman who was still employed there at that time. At this time Hockman told Mason she wished she had never met him and that she was two weeks away from starting her new job and she was afraid of losing it, apparently because ACTF had seized both the tagged and illegally untagged Amoxi she gave Mason, and I assume she wrote that down in the medical records. At that time, Mason did not know that that new job she was talking about was as a vet for LAAS.
Hochman refused to give Mason any medical records more than three years old, saying the law did not require Holiday Humane to keep records longer than that, and refused to give Mason the older records which she still had in her possession. Why?Mason said he had medical records going back five or more years, which she refused to give them to him.
She also, according to Mason, told him not to bring his cats to Holiday Human for shots anymore, but that he should take them to shot clinics at Red Barn on Topanga.
My God, what a confused mess we have here. Mason’s own vet was involved in the bust Mason that I assume was to make the ACTF and Boks look good, and likely to make an audition tape for the Animal Precinct TV program--or at least she knew about it while still his vet.
On top of that, no one from the downtown City Attorney’s Office will talk to Mason, because “The case is still under investigation.” Jeez, one would expect investigating detectives to talk to someone that was a suspect. So why are they refusing to talk to a suspect?
Therefore, Mason went to the North Valley City Attorney’s Office where he talked to Mike Sheehan, who is a Deputy City Attorney in the Criminal Division. He told Mason to call Linda Ortega, the detective who had told Mason two days before the bust that they (ACTF and LAAS) can take whatever they want from him, anytime they want from him. She is also the one shown holding the orange and white cat, Johnny in the Daily News pictures. This is the geriatric cat that apparently was euthanized even though confiscated veterinary records—according to Mason—will show was old but healthy.
Sheehan told Mason that if Ortega won’t talk to him, he needs to demand he talk to her supervisor and then they will have to talk to him.
Regarding Johnny the elderly cat, Mason was given an Order to Comply by Animal Services in July that he take Johnny to a vet because he looked ill. They had previously given him a similar order in mid-2006, with which he did comply and took Johnny to his vet. Guess who it was? Cynthia Hockman! Both times Hockman wrote on the Orders to Comply that Johnny was old but healthy for his age. This is probably the “very elderly cat” I was told was euthanized at West Valley who supposedly was put on life support by Dr. Rao.
In the meantime, all requests to find out where his cats are have been unanswered, including Brad Jensen’s request for public documents. Lt. Troy Boswell said he won’t tell Mason anything about the cats but that he should consider turning over ownership to LAAS. Imagine that, Boswell wants Mason to surrender his beloved cats, who are also evidence animals that prove he was taking care of them, so that LAAS can do whatever they want with them. Of course, this assumes any are still alive.
This is getting sicker and sicker. Did Cynthia Hochman, along with Troy Boswell and the ACTF/Boks, knowing that Mason was an easy target, someone whom they were in constant contact with and one of whom had been treating his cats for five years, set Mason up? Is this why Hockman said she wished she had never met Mason and was worried about her new job with LAAS and probably feeling guilty because of her part in the bust?
Remember in Boks news release still on the LAAS website, that he said a "small amount of Amoxi" had been confiscated? He sure didn't mention it had been prescribed by one of his own hired, but not eyet started vets.
Is this one of the reasons that the Mason case has gone underground?
What more interesting information is going to come out now?
From the Veterinary Medical Board:
Licensee Name:
HOCKMAN CYNTHIA LEE DVM
License Type:
VETERINARIAN
License Number:
14409
Expiration Date:
August 31, 2008
Issue Date:
June 08, 2001
Licensee Name:
HOLIDAY HUMANE SOCIETY VETERINARY CLINIC
Guess how much Cynthia was making at Holiday Humane? $104,451!! She told me she took a pay cut because she could help so many more animals than at Holiday Humane--and also to ream Mason.
13 comments:
There are some major ethical and legal issues here. What about the hypocratic oath? First, do no harm. How is turning in a healthy old cat to be murdered not harm? She also breached a confidentiality agreement with her client Mason by sharing his information. And why did she turn him in? He was treating the cats. She hadn't seen his house. Does she turn in all her clients that have sick cats or more than three cats? Why else would someone take their pet to the vet if they weren't sick? Is being sick a crime? Maybe we should just kill all animals that go to animal hospitals. If they're there, they must be guilty of neglect, right.
You have really opened Pandora's box, Muzika. All the evils of the Department and system are pouring out of this case. This is one sick Department and City.
Cynthia was the main vet at Holiday Humane. I think she wants to be chief vet at LA.
Dr. Hockaman has been my veterinarian for many years and would never try to frame a client.
Good thing you didn't live in Mother Theresa's home town, you probably would be the first person to string her up.
You like to make your delusions sound like reality and I'm getting a little sick of it. Get a life, Muzika!
After today I give up, I'm not going to read your garbage anymore.
I have made no accusations that Hockman (or Hockaman) tried to frame Mason. Read it again. I am just stating what Mason told me and her reactions to Mason both before and aftre his bust.
Apparently she knew about the bust before Mason as he was warned to hide his cats by a coworker of hers. Then she apparently--according to Mason--destroyed his old medical records. Why?
Why did she tell him that because of him she might lose her new job?
Are you saying Mason is making all of this up? When and where did I accuse her of a frameup, only that she knew about the bust and was frightened about her new job with LAAS.
Who are you who claims to have been her client for many years? This seems a little suspicious to me, a lot like Son of Naysayer who so strongly she denied she was Ponce.
I doubt very seriously this is true and knowing your track record, Ed, of not being able to prove what you say, it probably is far from the truth. Why would this vet put her career in jeopardy like this? When you have a lot to lose you are a little more careful. If she had given medication illegally why would she put herself in the hot seat by turning him in? Doesn't make sense, Ed. If anything the employees at Holiday would be the most logical ones to do it, they have less to lose. A vet does have a moral and ethical and legal obligation to report animal cruelty so if she did it, then she did the right thing. You are only taking info from Mason, you have absolutely nothing else other than his tale. Again you open mouth without evidence to back it up. Show us the proof of these accusations from sources other than Mason, what else do you expect him to say. You weren't there, you didn't see the condition of the cats at the time of seizure, and you are not a vet.
Just when you think it can't turn into more of a sick, twisted cesspool, another shot of sewage enters the mix.
Troy Boswell now twisting Ron's arm to force him to help kill his own animals to cover up the evidence? How can he relinquish animals they won't admit are alive or dead?
Is there one sane, decent person in L.A. city government? This is literally nauseating. And the fact is, this kind of corruption predates and will survive Boks. How can we protect ourselves and L.A.'s animals from a city government that's so corrupt, that will do all this, and more we don't even know about, literally stepping on the bodies of dead dogs and cats?
What track record are you talking about?
How can I show proof of Mason's allegations when no one other than Mason is talking?
All the evidence in this case is being hidden by the City Attorney or whomever has that evidence.
How can I know the impound condition of Mason's cats when no one releases that information even after a public records request?
City government has made it absolutely impossible to prove or disprove anything.
All that I posted is what Mason told me and his suspicions. The City Attorney has ALL the cards. If they release information that contradicts Mason's allegations I will post that.
Yes, I am not a vet, I do not know the condition of the animals. Any claim that the cats were in such bad shape that they had to be destroyed rather than treated needs to be shared by said vet.
Boks said that the cats had Rheinotracheitis. He also said some do not survive even after extensive treatment. This means many were treatable, but they were not treated and evidence animals were destroyed.
Re comment #5. I work at a private rescue which, for obvious reasons, I'm not going to name.
Any day you could walk in there and find a couple of bone-thin cats; a dog who's so old and decrepit, hobbling on bow-legs, that all she wants to do is sleep, eat, chew on a ball, and excrete; a puppy with ringworm; and more.
Is this rescue abusing these animals? No. They get treated for their ailments, they see vets regularly, they get petted, walked, played with and loved, and eventually, hopefully, they get better. But we can't change chronic conditions, nor can we reverse in a day the effects of age, cruel overbreeding, or years of abuse or neglect by former owners.
But if some vet with an agenda, or some LAAS GM walked in one day they could point a camera at one of these very much loved dogs and cats and tell everybody "This animal is being abused! See how she limps? See how emaciated he is?" And if they seized our vet records and refused to return them how could we prove that we hadn't starved or neglected these animals?
We couldn't. All we could hope for was that the vet we'd gone to would be truthful, and say, "I saw the cat/dog several times. The owner and I are doing what we can, on an ongoing basis, to make and keep this animal healthy." Unless our vet wanted a job with the people who took our records. Then we'd be in deep trouble, like Ron.
My own cat started getting thin and I took him to the vet several times. No answers after a lot of time, tests, and vet visits. By the time a different vet diagnosed him with cancer it was too late. Did I abuse him?
Ron Mason was looking after cats no one else wanted and no one else cared about. The irony is that if he had ignored them, let Burt die after getting hit by a car instead of stepping up, paying $1200 for the steel rods that allowed Burt to walk, he'd be fine now. If he had treated these cats as garbage, he'd be okay. But because he tried, and by a bad twist of fate, fell into the paths of Boswell, Hockman, Boks and Cocek, his kindness and desire to do what he could is costing him everything.
The lesson, if we choose to hear it, is that we'd better turn our backs on animals who weren't lucky enough to have optimum health care from day one. Try to help a sick cat who dioesn't miraculously turn overnight into a bouncy healthy kitten, and you could end up in jail.
If we choose that.
How about this for a headline?
LAAS Hires Vet Who Abetted Animal Abuser for Years
Interesting thought, isn't it? One of many numerous dynamics that I bet killed Ron's cats and is still keeping him twisting in the wind...
It's illegal to have a crippled or diseased animal in Los Angeles City. If you have a cat with FIV, FLV, URI, it could be taken and killed. If you have a cat with a pin in it's leg that limps, it could be impounded and killed. You could be arrested.
SEC. 53.30. KEEPING OF DISEASED OR CRIPPLED ANIMALS.
No person shall have, keep, or harbor any animal which is known or believed by him to be infected with any dangerous or communicable disease, or which is in an incurable crippled condition, or which is afflicted with any painful disease which is believed by such person to be incurable, except as in this article otherwise provided.
What's the "except as in this article otherwise provided."?
Because that's insane. LAAS has protocols for housing FIV cats in shelters in relation to non-FIV cats, so if 53.30 is still on the books their own policies are in conflict with the law.
Honest to God, I used to be one of those people who believed government existed for a reason. That if you needed help or if something bad was happening they were your recourse.
But this is just nuts. People being targeted and prosecuted for trying to help injured and sick animals? Why? Why do we have people in power who can act this way with impunity -- who even want to act this way? Why do the newspapers not care?
I'm starting to look at every "Animal Precinct" and "Animal Cops" and ask myself, "What AREN'T they showing me?"
Why do people who are so callous and so cynical go into "public service" -- much less animal services? This is so just -- nuts. I'm really starting to understand the people who go live in bunkers in Utah.
If all you rescuers are doing as "good" a job as Mason was at taking care of all these animals no one else supposedly wants, a vet would be violating their hippocratic oath (assuming vets take one) if they DIDN'T get concerned.
Maybe we should hesitate to consider Mason to be a reliable source of information in this case. He's the one who has the most to gain from sliming everyone who had anything to do with busting him. Muzika is falling for one of the oldest scams in the book because he's on his little crusade against Ed Boks.
Maybe he should explain to us exactly what he considers Hochman's conflict of interest to be instead of saying she "apparently" did this or that. Who's it apparent to? Mason? Show us some proof. Does Muzika even know what a conflict of interest is?
Let's use the word "apparently" correctly for once: Mason apparently couldn't take care of all of the cats on his property and apparently wasn't smart enough to know he shouldn't have tried to do it the way he did. Apparently the law enforcement people weren't perfect in their procedures when they busted him. Apparently they weren't perfect in MacArthur Park last May or with Rodney King in 1991 either.
Cynthia Lee Hockman now is involved with Paws Mobile Veterinary Clinic
PAWS MOBILE VETERINARY CLINIC
7657 WINNETKA AVE.
City: WINNETKA
State: CA
Zip: 91306-2677
County: LOS ANGELES
She administers vaccinations at The Red Barn in West Hills, CA
I have left a voicemail message at the listed telephone on the invoice with all the needed info for three straight days (today included) requesting a callback regarding one of the vaccinations administered to my dog. No callback...nothing! That is not professional!!!
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