On March 12 one of our best friends died, after a good, long life, aged 80. John was a local sheep farmer, and one of the first people we met when we moved to Southland and into his farm cottage over 20 years ago. We arrived in Winton for a […]
Vet Ethics: Can you be cruel to a robot pet?
Popular culture has started to examine the question of whether it is wrong to harm robots. In the series Westworld, the android inhabitants of a Wild West-style theme park are sometimes treated decently by the human visitors. But they are often mistreated and deliberately damaged, sometimes sadistically and immorally. Or […]
Eagle Post: A consideration of the past year in the US
The year 2018 brought turmoil to the US veterinary profession, making it a miniature reflection of the turmoil in the US. Mergers and acquisitions Coming off its multibillion-dollar buy in 2017, of the second-largest veterinary hospital chain in North America (Veterinary Clinics of America or VCA), Mars Inc. (yes, the […]
Eagle Post: An update on marijuana use in pets
Delegates at the 2017 AVMA meeting asked the AVMA to develop and disseminate information on marijuana as it pertains to four areas: (1) current legal status of cannabis as applied to veterinarians; (2) unified definitions of cannabis and its derivatives; (3) current research on the use of cannabis in animals; […]
Vet Ethics: Sign of the times: thoughts on the death of Koko
The death of Koko the signing gorilla in June provides an opportunity to assess her place in the story of ape language experiments and in the animal protection movement. Prior to Koko, Washoe the chimpanzee was the first famous great ape to be experimentally taught a version of American Sign […]