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My veterinary journey
Tony Beck (1998 BVetMed)
In 2004, I wrote a business plan to raise $20 million and open clinics in China mainland, but I didn’t envisage the road of personal and professional
learning I would embark on. In April 2006, working as a consultant to Beijing’s quarantine bureau, I opened an autonomous clinic within China’s largest hospital, where I met my future business partner Yi Bing Shi – Shi meaning stone, who was Assistant Clinical Director.
At that time veterinary care in China mainland was definitely stuck in the 1950’s, even though the beating heart
of the Chinese profession longed for change, for training, for access to foreign equipment and supplies.
In 2009, Dr Stone and I opened Doctors Beck and Stone (DrB&S), a premier group focused on treating the pets
of ex-pats and the burgeoning China elite pet owners. Combining western treatment approaches with the Chinese industry norm had been a challenge as
a consultant. Discussions as to whether we would have a Chinese department
focused on the middle classes
lasted several months, however the management team agreement led to a strong multicultural veterinary team.
As DrB&S led from the front with ten shiny, spotless, glass, welfare-maintaining and professional hospitals spanning
from Beijing to Shenzhen; the rest of the profession chased our premier standard. In 2018, Ruipeng, China’s largest group, which had expanded from 35 hospitals to 1,200 since 2004, bought DrB&S (China).
During those ten years, I learnt business in arguably one of the most aggressive business environments, reading and re-reading Sun Tzu’s Art of War! I also had the professional latitude, as one of China’s most experienced vets, to take on a raft of surgical procedures, performing China’s first stem cell treatments, Tibial tuberosity Advancement (TTA) and Total Hip Replacement (THR), though I brought in an overseas team to perform the latter. During these years DrB&S expanded to Hong Kong and Singapore.
I have always had a bent for volunteer work and the need in China mainland was great. In 2006, I set up a neuter clinic
for China’s only licensed charity and as Chief Veterinary Officer for DrB&S, my partners always rued my next charitable endeavour; whether I was helping our vets chase stray dogs through soon to
be demolished buildings, or coaching Chris Barden of the little adoption shop on shelter management when he started rescuing meat-dogs.
In 2016, I found myself called into Guangdong Province, where 500 meat- dogs had been rescued and dumped
in cages stacked four or five high in a farm shack, with locals coming to see the spectacle in high heels. On arriving, I instigated quarantine measures and spent a day negotiating with the locals to allow mass vaccination as distemper and parvovirus was ripping through the dogs. These events were the spark that led Jeff Beri to launch the charity Leave No Dogs Behind.
Having now launched a consultancy focused on developing the veterinary industry in Asia, I will continue to work with the many great people that I have met over the last ten years.
I have named but a few. Along with their South-East Asian colleagues, the Chinese mainland veterinary profession has the drive and energy to undoubtedly join the ranks of the world’s veterinary elite.
Tony is also currently our Leader for the Hong Kong Alumni Networking Group. He and some fellow RVC alumni in Hong Kong would love
to hear from any alumni currently in the area or students moving back to the country. To learn more about our Hong Kong network and other networks we have set up, please visit our webpages: www.rvc.ac.uk/alumni-network
or email development@rvc.ac.uk
and we will send you information and links to our groups. You can also read more about our Networking Groups on page 72.
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Shun Yi DrB&S veterinary team
Drinks after getting 112 dogs ready for relocation in 2016