Barbara McCloud is the Midwestern University Vice President and General Counsel responsible for defending the university's veterinarians in complaints before the Board. She first shows up in our records as part of the Fiscal Year 2019 five-pack of complaints in which an elderly dog was allegedly left in a cage and unable to walk after a student-led attempt at obtaining a fine needle aspirate; the dog later died.
One of the accused veterinarians, Kara Thomas, was eventually elected president of the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association by her peers. Other respondents included Patricia Bennett, Jason Eberhardt, Jason Evans, and Carla Gartrell, the latter of which is one of the rare veterinarians to also hold a Juris Doctor. These cases were also interesting in that it somehow got assigned to an Investigative Committee that had a Midwestern University veterinarian on it. In these cases it appears most of the veterinarians also elected to enlist well-known veterinary protector David Stoll in their defense, though it's unknown if this double-representation was a personal choice or a decision by Midwestern University.
She was also involved in subsequent cases involving a dead alpaca who allegedly succumbed to the university's large animal care and a cat who died after going on a wild surgical and referral ride through Midwestern and related facilities.
A typical McCloud magnum opus involves a two-punch submission. One part is her own letter, typically beginning with a brief description of Midwestern University and its facilities—a sort of rhetorical chaff—before going into bedazzling technical detail explaining why the complaint in question is totally wrong. This is usually followed by a response from the respondent veterinarian himself, one that often shares very similar wording with related responses and gives the distinct impression of having a co-author credit.
Barbara McCloud defended veterinarians in about 1.1% of cases in our Tails of Woe.
We've tallied up a list of Barbara McCloud's clients from our collected public records. For a more detailed list showing each complaint, respondent, and premises, view the Client History.
The following veterinarians were most frequently represented by Barbara McCloud:
| Respondent | Count |
|---|---|
| Carla Gartrell | 1 |
| Clemence Chako | 1 |
| Jason Eberhardt | 1 |
| Jason Evans | 1 |
| Kara Thomas | 1 |
| Omar Gonzalez-Citron | 1 |
| Patricia Bennett | 1 |
Veterinarians represented by Barbara McCloud were most likely to work at one of the following veterinary premises:
| Premises | Count |
|---|---|
| Midwestern University | 7 |