AIM: To determine the ability of sheep to mobilise their body reserves after being deprived of feed prior to transport for slaughter. METHODS: A total of 240 3- and 4-year-old cull ewes were held off pasture for 0, 9, 18 or 30 hours (n=60 per group) then transported 1 hour […]
Vet Ethics: Canine culls – some considerations
Following a political and humanitarian crisis in Nigeria in 1971, some French doctors came together to form a group called Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF – also known as Doctors Without Borders – has been involved in many significant crises like those in Rwanda, the Congo, and Bosnia. In its […]
Vet Ethics: Return of the bats
Many years ago I wrote an article for The Veterinarian on the grey-headed flying foxes at Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens. Amid great controversy, the Garden’s management had decided to kill bats in order to remove them all from Fern Gully. Recently, an analysis of the saga by Dan Perry from […]