In 2016, a new US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy will give veterinarians a key role in combating a surge in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. For the first time, the agency will require veterinarians, not farmers, to decide when antibiotics are administered. While medical doctors issue antibiotics by prescription only, farmers and food companies have been […]
Continue ReadingWould you consider leaving behind your home, moving overseas, and dedicating your life to the welfare of suffering animals? I wondered whether I would do this when I met the founder of Animals Asia, Jill Robinson, at the Minding Animals Conference in New Delhi. Actually, I wondered less about whether I could leave the comforts […]
Continue ReadingThe Royal College of Veterinary Surgeon’s RCVS Survey of the Veterinary Professions 2014 was published online in September. According to the RCVS it provides a ‘snapshot of the current state of the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions.’ The four-yearly survey was carried out by the independent Institute for Employment Studies and collated responses from 6,988 […]
Continue ReadingBefore this year, Ebola was a disease relegated to remote villages in Africa. Even public health officials did not worry about it spreading very far. Until recently, they would probably say that the virus typically burned out after ravaging only a handful of people. Then came 2014, a year that has, in many ways, rewritten […]
Continue ReadingMelbourne’s Spring racing has again raised the question of the use of whips as performance aids in thoroughbreds. Jockey Zac Purton was fined $3000 over his “excessive” whipping of Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti. For the same ride, Purton collected $87,500 prize money. Let’s begin an ethical investigation of this issue by imagining the following […]
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