Veterinarian Coalition · Rainbow Bridge of Hope
The Rainbow Bridge is for the pet.
Our bridges are for the vet.
Veterinarians die by suicide more than any other profession in the United States. Female vets at 3.5× the general population. Male vets at 2.1×. The profession surpassed dentists more than a decade ago. New grads last on average five years before half leave clinical practice. This page is a profession-wide answer to a profession-wide crisis.
Dr. Ginger Bryant Hutchinson, DVM
“He couldn't cross his own bridge.”
On Paul, who built rainbow bridges for grieving pet families and died by suicide before the world could find him.
“Nowhere in my training did anyone ever talk about finding balance.”
Recalling her vet school orientation. Twenty-five years out. Still true.
“My sister and I will be honorably a part of it.”
When she heard the plan. On camera. April 2026. The moment the coalition got real.
You're a veterinarian or vet professional
The coalition is real. The bridges are coming. You don't carry this alone.
Dr. Ginger Bryant at Glencoe Veterinary Hospital is the pilot. Peer support routing. AVMA Wellbeing Line. Wholesale grief-care inventory. A tangible coalition signal you can put in your lobby. Join below.
Join the veterinarian coalition →
You're a pet owner or community member
Your local vet is being squeezed. Here's how you actually help.
Mobile vaccine clinics, online pharmacies, and corporate consolidation are eating the practices that hold the moment of your pet's last breath. Action ladder below. Choose your level.
See the community action ladder →
In crisis right now? Call or text 988. Veterans: 988 + press 1. Veterinary professionals: AVMA Wellbeing. Not One More Vet: NOMV.
We trust them with the moment of our pet's death.
We've never asked who holds the moment of theirs.
Every veterinarian we know is carrying euthanasias they performed this week, owners who blamed them, animals they couldn't save, and bills they can't cover. They absorbed grief that wasn't theirs to absorb. The profession was never built to send any of it back out.
One of them was a friend
Stephanie. 2015. The reason the tattoo exists.
Before Paul, before Pat Allabaugh's March 31 text message, before Rainbow Bridge of Hope existed, Amber lost her friend Stephanie to suicide. That loss is why she has the semicolon on her wrist. That loss is part of why she answered the 8:52 AM message the way she did.
“I take this tattoo seriously. I got it after losing a friend to suicide in 2015 and later added the words and color. It has reminded me to keep going hundredssssss of times.”
The semicolon is the symbol for the sentence that could have ended and didn't. Project Semicolon. The author is you. The sentence is your life.
The convergence
Veterans + veterinarians: one coalition, two faces of the same crisis.
Veterinarians
3.5×
Female vets die by suicide at 3.5× the general population. Male vets at 2.1×. CDC MMWR, January 2019.
5 years
Average tenure of new vet grads on the clinical floor. Half are gone after that.
AVMA Wellbeing Line for veterinary professionals (avma.org/resources-tools/wellbeing). Not One More Vet (nomv.org). 988 always available.
The same three structural conditions
- 1. Occupational exposure to death. Combat for one. Euthanasia for the other. Multiple times per week, for decades. Compassion fatigue at industrial scale.
- 2. A culture that punishes weakness. Military bearing. Vet school admission at 4.8 GPA. Both communities are selected for stoicism, told to fix it, and disciplined for asking for help.
- 3. Proximity to lethal means. Both communities have professional access to means the general public doesn't. The training is to use them precisely. That precision is part of what shapes the crisis ratio.
The first-responder community shares the load: roughly 23% of first-responder suicides are themselves military veterans (PMC National Violent Death Reporting System, 2015-2017). Mission 22. Stop Soldier Suicide. K-9line Inc. The coalition includes them all.
The reality of the profession
By the numbers
The cumulative toll
“Ten percent of my days are happiness.”
One in ten. The other nine are euthanasias, angry owners, animals she couldn't save, and bills she couldn't cover.
Dr. Ginger Bryant Hutchinson, DVM · Glencoe Veterinary Hospital, April 2026
What she was taught in vet school
The 20/20 Rule
Of every 100 patients she treats: 20 get better no matter what she does. 20 don't get better no matter what she does. The 60 in the middle are where her work actually changes outcomes.
“Nowhere in my training did anyone ever talk about finding balance.”
Dr. Ginger, recalling her vet school professor
The economics that crush a practice
Three profit centers. Two are being eaten.
Vaccines
Profitable. Eaten by mobile vaccine clinics that operate in parking lots and pet store partnerships.
Pharmacy
Profitable. Eaten by online pet pharmacies promising 20% off first orders. She still has to stock anti-seizure meds, insulin, anaphylactic-shock drugs.
Sickness
The costliest service to provide. 10% margin after staff. $300K+ equipment, replaced every 5-10 years. This is the only one left.
Operators tell us mobile vaccine clinics drain roughly six figures a year out of local private practices collectively. Multiply that by every county in America.
Practitioner-reported figure, not yet published research. Geographic scope (New Smyrna Beach vs. all of Volusia County) being confirmed.
In memoriam
Sophia Yin, DVM
1966 — 2014
She was the woman who got the profession to start talking about it. Veterinarian. Applied animal behaviorist. Author of foundational textbooks on positive-reinforcement handling. The lineage that became Fear Free veterinary practice began with her work. On September 28, 2014, she took her own life.
Her death was the moment the profession could no longer pretend. The conversation that led to NOMV (Not One More Vet), to AVMA's Wellbeing initiatives, to every vet who has said the word “suicide” in a continuing-education seminar since then. Her foundation lives.
“Dr. Sophia Yin's death was a turning point for the veterinary profession. Her work continues through Fear Free and through every practice that puts an animal's mental state on the same footing as its physical health.”
The Sophia Yin Memorial Fund continues her work through the VIN Foundation. vinfoundation.org. If you're a vet reading this and Sophia's story echoes anything you're carrying, the AVMA Wellbeing Line is for you specifically. 988 always available.
The wholesale answer
One bridge. Four paths to a grieving family.
Pat Allabaugh's handcrafted bridges in Phase 1. Veteran craftsmen in Phase 2 (the same coalition partners K-9line and Stop Soldier Suicide refer). One transaction. Five outcomes.
Path 1 · Donor-to-practice
A donor buys a bridge and gives it to your clinic.
A donor purchases a bridge directly from Pat Allabaugh and gifts it to your clinic. Your clinic keeps the bridge in inventory and hands it to the next client whose pet passes. No cost to you. No cost to the family.
Path 2 · Direct retail
A grieving pet owner buys one directly.
Direct purchase from Pat Allabaugh. 100% of Paul's bridge sales go to her. Phase 2 commercial structure for future craftsmen is being finalized.
Path 3 · Vet-gifts-to-client
Your clinic buys at wholesale and gifts to families.
You absorb the wholesale cost as part of your grief-care protocol. The bridge becomes a tangible signal of the care you already provide. Strong retention and referral mechanics.
Path 4 · Vet-resells-wholesale
Your clinic stocks them at wholesale and offers them at retail.
A quiet way to replace some of the revenue that mobile clinics and online pharmacies are pulling out of your practice. A line of practice income tied to grief care, not to a price war.
One transaction. Multiple outcomes: vet revenue, craftsman income, mission funding, grieving family receives the bridge, the conversation continues.
If you're in the valley right now
These resources exist for you specifically.
Immediate crisis
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text. Twenty-four hours. Free. Confidential.
Veterinary professionals
AVMA Wellbeing Line
Confidential support built for the profession. avma.org/resources-tools/wellbeing
Not One More Vet
NOMV.org
Peer support, financial assistance, and educational resources built by vets for vets. The organization that grew up after Sophia Yin's death. nomv.org
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”Psalm 34:18
Join the coalition
For every veterinary professional who's been carrying this alone.
Dr. Ginger is the pilot. You're not the first. You're welcomed.