Meet Our Team

Dr. Hazlett is a part-time doctor at Circle of Life Animal Hospital. She graduated from Iowa State Veterinary College in 1975. She has been with us for sixteen years. Prior to moving to DeSoto, Dr. Hazlett owned a veterinary practice for 25 years. She has a special interest in felines (cats) and geriatric medicine. She is a proud owner of two cats, Banjo and Bootsie who are 7 years old. She enjoys working in her garden and traveling in her free time.

Dr Doug Pernikoff is our newest veterinary clinician to join our family here at the Circle of Life Veterinary Clinic. Dr Doug is a graduate of the UMC, College of Veterinary Medicine, after which he pursued a clinical internship in small animal medicine, followed by a 2 year residency at the St. Louis Zoo. Dr. Pernikoff has worked in small animal emergency medicine, small animal general practice, zoo animal and conservation medicine with the Wildlife Preservation Trust, Intl. / Gerald Durrell Trust, working globally. Dr Pernikoff has lectured and taught wildlife veterinary medicine worldwide and continues to instruct, mentor students and more. Further, Dr.Pernikoff acquired an MBA in Management at Washington University in St. Louis, and recently sold his clinic in St Louis County, after 27 years of practice at that location. He established the non-profit, Veterinary Pet Rescue nearly 10 years ago, and continues to support animal rescue and adoption in the St. Louis Metroplex. Dr. Doug sees pet animals like dogs, cats or even pocket pets like guinea pigs, pet rats, reptiles, and any/all exotic species. Please come by to meet Dr. Doug and bring your pet and exotic animals here for a medical visit.

Jennifer has been at Circle of Life since 2008. She knew she had a passion for working with animals ever since she was a child. She has worked multiple roles within the hospital before becoming practice manager. She began as a kennel assistant, moved to reception, and then was a technician for 11 years. Jennifer truly loves educating clients and getting to see all of the fur babies.

Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and relaxing with a good movie.

Angel is our groomer at Circle of Life. She has ten years of experience. She did an internship under Kathy Wolfe at All Dogs Grooming in 2011 and then sublet space from her until 2014. Then opened a shop in her house, which she worked on occasion, while she was working for Environmental Restoration.

When she stopped working for ER, Angel started working with Tanya Nauman at VIP Pups in Desloge, and also continued to work at home.

Courtney has worked in the kennels here at Circle of Life since the spring of 2020. She is very passionate about animals and their well-being.

At home, she has 4 pets – one cat, two dogs, and a hamster.

Amber has been in the Veterinary field as a customer service representative for eight years. When she first started her journey she worked at a hospital in Illinois for almost four years, then met her fiancé and moved to De Soto. A year later she started working for Circle of Life. Amber’s always had a passion for helping people and animals and she’s happy she gets to do that every day.

She has two dogs, Calli and Roscoe, and three cats, Sammy, Binx, and the newest addition Zazu.

Taylor has been a customer service representative for us for about a year and half. She is a proud fur mom to 2 dogs, 2 cats and 1 chinchilla. She works part time at Circle of Life and is also a hair dresser.

Ashley joined Circle of Life in August of 2020. She entered the veterinary field in 2018 doing emergency based veterinary work in Washington state while her husband, Jarrett, served in the military. She has three dogs named Kodie, Gunner, and River as well as two cats, Kitty and Bones. Ashley also has two snakes, a gecko, and a fish. Ashley enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, and spending time with her family and friends.

Julia has been in customer service for almost 7 years, she loves working with people and their animals. She enjoys being able to come to work to help people get their animals seen to make sure they’re okay and that they stay healthy. Julia is a wife and a mom to an amazing baby boy. She and her family love being outdoors and going to the lake.

Amanda has been working in the veterinary field since 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Sciences from Southeast Missouri State University. She has been part of the Circle of Life Family since May of 2017. A mother of 2, when she’s not helping care for our wonderful patients she enjoys relaxing at home with her family members, those both with and without fur, and being active within the Missouri Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Tara has been in the veterinary field since 2013. She has always had a love for wildlife and farm animals. When she isn’t caring for the fur children at work or hanging with her own furbabies, hiking is her go-to activity. Her animals are her life and she has a pig and a tortoise at home.

Kara is a Veterinary Technician that recently joined our team in 2020.

She began her career in veterinary medicine in 2007, working part time and studying at University of Missouri-St Louis where she focused her studies on micro and molecular biology. She found that veterinary medicine was the perfect combination of her two favorite things-animals and biology, and has been in the field ever since.

She has worked all over St Louis and surrounding areas and even worked in Orlando, FL with a vet that specialized in exotics and saw most of the animals from surrounding theme parks. This is where she found her passion in working with exotics. She has worked on pretty much everything from mice to alligators and even some large primates.

She currently lives in Imperial, MO with her stepdaughter and two dogs (Link and Luna) and two cats (Juju and Jonesy).