Vertebrate animals are to be recognised as sentient beings for the first time in UK law after the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill was introduced in May. With sentience part of domestic law, new legislation must acknowledge that animals can experience feelings such as joy or pain.
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; […]
Abstracts: Tail docking of canine puppies: reassessment of the tail’s role in communication, the acute pain caused by docking and interpretation of behavioural responses
Laws, regulations and professional standards increasingly aim to ban or restrict non-therapeutic tail docking in canine puppies. These constraints have usually been justified by reference to loss of tail participation in communication between dogs, the acute pain presumed to be caused during docking itself, subsequent experiences of chronic pain and […]
Vet Ethics: How can we give animals a voice?
Australia is a wealthy, modern, civilised, country. Many Australians would say that our country, on the whole, looks after its citizens fairly well. We might also think that Australia cares well for its animals. Perhaps we even believe that Australia is one of the world leaders in animal welfare; and […]