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.
As I write the UK is enduring its third national coronavirus lockdown in 11 months. It is over a year since the first COVID-19 death was reported here and approaching a year since the first national lockdown began. I doubt back then any of us could have envisaged the severity […]
February saw the status of veterinary nurses in the UK enhanced by a Royal Charter conferring professional recognition and requiring accountable regulation. From now on Registered Veterinary Nurses (RVNs) will be subject to rules similar to those governing their veterinary surgeon colleagues. The RVN’s will be overseen by the vet’s […]
The 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 […]
The British veterinary profession’s relationship with its regulatory body, The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), was for many years one of mute acceptance; presumably because any institution prefixed ‘Royal’ was dutifully honoured and most definatly obeyed. In recent years as the rate of change and complexity in the veterinary […]
