Explore the impact of cyberbullying on veterinary professionals in this episode of Vet Watch.
Content warning: This conversation contains topics of mental health struggles and suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, text or call the National Suicide Hotline at 988.
Last year, Shawn Frehner, DVM, went missing on April 6, 2025, after a video surfaced online allegedly showing him kicking a sedated horse he was treating a few days before his disappearance. The video quickly went viral and prompted angry comments and threats, plus the local sherrif’s office opened an animal cruelty investigation. On April 18th, 2 weeks later, Frehnber’s body was discovered at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.1
After this event, Heidi Pretzel, Associate Editor for AG Daily, wrote an article on the event and cyberbullies that came for Frehner. In this episode of Vet Watch, Christopher Lee, DVM, MPH, DACVPM, DACVM (parasitology); Cert: FFC, CFV, RECOVER-ALS, sat down with Pretzel to have an in depth conversation on the what happened leading up to the video going viral, and the aftermath, cyberbullying, mental health in veterinary medicine, and more.
Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity
Christopher Lee, DVM, MPH, DACVPM, DACVM (parasitology); Cert: FFC, CFV, RECOVER-ALS: here seems to be a little bit of a disconnect, too. I think. On one side you have people outside the large animal industry and some within that are horrified when they see that video and they watch that kick. On the other side, you have people within the large animal industry, that say, Well, I mean, it's not necessarily okay, but far worse occurs. So isn't this video maybe more about that disconnect, rather than Frehner himself,
Heidi Pretzel: I think you really hit on an important topic there for me, personally, coming from the production AG industry, from the livestock industry, horses are still livestock. As much as people have put this spiritual value on horses, and as much as Americans, we love horses, and they're beautiful, wonderful animals, I love my horses probably more than I love like a lot of people, but at the end of the day, they're large animals who are going to react how they are designed, either by their creator or natural selection, how they're designed to react, which is based on their survival as individuals and their survival as a species.
I think part of that disconnect between the general population and even the population of horse owners, is that as Americans, we're 3 generations removed from the farm, and so the average American doesn't understand how production agricultural works. The average American hasn't handled large animals. If they have, it's been in very controlled environments or smaller numbers of horses. So it's different when you're handling even 1000s of animals a day, like some large animal vets, do. They're out there checking 1200 head of cows a day going through a shoot, versus even a horse owner that owns 1 or 2 animals and have a really minimal interaction with them.
And in this case, this horse was not halter broke, he was not well handled. That was supposedly part of the reason why he was being castrated, is so that he could go on and be handled more safely. But some of that onus, ends up falling on large animal veterinarians, farrier, equine professionals, [etc.] in situations like that that the average horse owner isn't equipped to handle. And I think it's fair to say, based on the facilities and fact that this horse wasn't adequately prepared to be handled by a veterinarian that that was probably the case here.
Lee: Which is a good point, which is also part of it, is that choice of him to work with that horse under those circumstances. I mean, that is also part of the choices that led to this. You mentioned this a little bit, but speaking about horse, specifically, according to KTNV, the owners had purchased a wild mustang, now named Big Red, for $50 and we're trying to break the horse to resell it. And according to News8, Brainer said, as you had mentioned, he was attempting to reposition the horse to help it breathe, but he did recognize and admit that he did kick the horse and wish that the situation had never happened.
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