In the previous Vet Ethics column, I raised the issue of whether veterinarians should be held legally liable to pay emotional damages in civil suits to bereaved clients for medical or surgical malpractice. This is a debate being had in Animal Law circles, particularly in the US. One reason for considering this issue is that […]
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Changes to bedding and assessment protocols on live export voyages are being considered by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, following a controversial journey and calls by Vets Against Live Export (VALE). The department told The Veterinarian it is establishing a technical advisory committee to review the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock […]
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A chance encounter as a student sparked a compassionate plan in Sam Kovac One day back in 2009, having just enjoyed a family lunch in Woolloomooloo, Sam Kovac was walking back to his car when he came across a homeless man with a cattle dog. The cattle dog was coughing so badly it was having […]
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Horses engaged in strenuous exercise display physiological responses that approach the upper functional limits of key organ systems, in particular their cardiorespiratory systems. Maximum athletic performance is therefore vulnerable to factors that diminish these functional capacities, and such impairment might also lead to horses experiencing unpleasant respiratory sensations, i.e., breathlessness. The aim of this review […]
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I recently attended the annual AVA conference in Melbourne. In one of the talks, Chris Johnson, a Professor of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Tasmania, discussed the use of so-called guardian dogs to protect livestock on Australian farms. This idea involves a new approach to a longstanding animal welfare and farming problem. Livestock such […]
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