Imagine going to a local vet for a second opinion—not for your dog or cat, but for you.

That’s what has been happening at a respected animal clinic in quiet Daytona Beach Shores for the last eight years, and no one ever talked about it.

Men and women were scheduling 30-minute appointments to see Dr. Sandra L’Amie, a licensed veterinarian at the Oceans Edge Veterinary Clinic. These were hardly standard medical checkups. L’Amie used a pendulum and a holistic medical technique called “lifeline” to treat her human patients. But clinic employees were told to sign confidentiality agreements to make sure the secret never got out.

“We all knew about the pendulum,” says detective Sgt. Mike Fowler of the Daytona Beach Shores Police Dept. “But no one knew about the people.”  

  Former employees say L’Amie’s patients paid $95 a session. Those exams included a four-word chant—“Infinite love and gratitude”—and almost always ended with the sale of dietary supplements that contained ingredients such as vitamin A, beet root or bovine (cow) bone. Former receptionist Cindy Ronning says she saw a couple of patients not seeking proper medical help “because they had to talk to the vet first.”

Ronning was the first to alert Local 6 and Seminole magazine about L’Amie’s unusual people practice. Ronning spent eight months behind the desk scheduling L’Amie’s human patients every week. “I struggled with it the whole time I was employed there,” Ronning says. “She doesn’t have a license to be doing this. She’s a veterinarian, and this is an animal hospital.”

But L’Amie claims there’s nothing illegal about her side practice. “I do not treat people, I do not diagnose disease, I don’t cure disease,” she says. “I provide supplementation so your body can cure itself.” L’Amie says she never led patients to believe she was an MD. “I understand what you are saying” she told us, “but you don’t understand what I am doing.”

Even so, the state health department has seen enough. Sources familiar with the investigation confirm that the health department is seeking an order to shut down L’Amie’s human practice. And Fowler says the Daytona Shores police department is considering criminal charges against her. “If we can prove she was making actual medical diagnoses, it could be considered criminal,” he says.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation says there is no question that it is illegal for a vet to treat humans. That agency issued this statement: “If a licensed veterinarian was treating humans, that would be considered working outside the scope of the license.”

Officials in Tallahassee say there has never been a case like this on record—until now. As of this writing, no formal action has been taken against L’Amie. But that may change as official investigations continue. S

Mike Holfeld is a reporter for WKMG Local 6 News, and a regular contributor to Seminole magazine.