{"id":2042,"date":"2016-04-14T22:40:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T12:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2016-04-14T22:40:17","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T12:40:17","slug":"veterinary-associations-prioritise-animal-welfare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2042","title":{"rendered":"Veterinary Associations prioritise animal welfare"},"content":{"rendered":"Two major veterinary associations have listed animal welfare as their top strategic priority in response to overwhelming feedback from veterinarians.\r\n\r\nIn February the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) launched its 2016-2021 five year strategy, with animal welfare taking the number one position of five priority areas. The British Veterinary Association (BVA) also launched its new animal welfare policy, entitled Vets Speaking Up for Animal Welfare. Both policies stress the need for veterinarians to advocate animal welfare.\r\n\r\nAVA President Robert Johnson said that while there was an assumption that every veterinarian has the welfare of animals on their agenda, there was a need to \u201cmake a clear statement that animal welfare is a top priority.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe AVA\u2019s animal welfare strategy incorporates four streams: companion animals, production animals, leadership in animal welfare and reactive advocacy to issues that arise. The latter includes issues such as puppy factories, greyhound racing reforms, Hendra virus management, live export, humane control of invasive species and equine dentistry. \r\n\r\n\u201cOur vision is to be leaders in health and welfare in Australia\u2019s animal industries,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople may comment about whether we\u2019re an industry or profession, but we\u2019re talking about the veterinary profession within animal industries. The AVA not only needs to be leading the profession, but showing leadership in Australian animal industries. We need to be speaking up for animals whenever the issue of animal welfare arises.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe AVA had already taken a leadership role in building on the work of the now-disbanded Australian Animal Welfare Strategy, following a round table involving key stakeholders last October.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe need to keep that momentum going,\u201d Johnson said.\r\n\r\nBVA President Sean Wensley said that the association \u201crecognises that promoting the best interests of animals and their treatment, wherever they are used or impacted on by people, is important to veterinary professional identity.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAnimal welfare has consistently emerged as a top lobbying priority of BVA members in member research surveys,\u201d he said.\r\n\r\nIn particular, there were calls to build on the BVA\u2019s high-profile animal welfare campaigns such as the campaign to end slaughter without pre-stunning.\r\n\r\nBoth associations acknowledge an increased public concern for animal welfare.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt is clear that public, scientific, media and political interest in animal welfare will continue to grow,\u201d Wensley said. \u201cAnimal welfare science \u2013 elucidating how animals experience the world and what they need and want from their perspectives \u2013 has developed over the last 50 years and has brought an influential evidence base to questions about animal welfare and prompted further ethical debate about how animals ought to be used. Veterinary science is also advancing rapidly, making new medical and surgical therapies available, with associated ethical considerations about what should be done versus what can be done.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe acknowledged that while there can be tensions, with veterinarians having duties to animals, clients and employers, the profession is animal-welfare focused, as distinct from being client or vet focused. \r\n\r\n\u201cWorking with our clients and being economically viable are, of course, essential, but they are enablers for us to improve animal welfare.\u201d\r\nSydney University Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science, Paul McGreevy, welcomed the new strategies from both organisations.\r\n\r\n\u201cAnimal welfare is an issue whose time has come and we now see the veterinary profession is stepping-up in ways that would have been unthinkable just ten years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cSpeaking up for animals is about to become a core expectation of our profession, not a mere side-serving from the brave and detached.\u201d\r\n\r\nMcGreevy is leading an Office of Teaching and Learning grant developing a shared animal welfare and ethics teaching resource across eight veterinary schools in the region.\r\n\r\n\u201cAs the evidence for animal sentience has become too compelling to ignore, many vets have gained the confidence and conviction to speak up for animals. The advent of evidence-based advocacy for animals makes this an exciting time to be a veterinarian.\u201d\r\n\r\nView the AVA\u2019s Animal Welfare Strategy.<\/a><\/em>\r\nView the BVA\u2019s Animal Welfare Strategy.<\/a><\/em>\r\nAnne Fawcett<\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two major veterinary associations have listed animal welfare as their top strategic priority in response to overwhelming feedback from veterinarians. In February the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) launched its 2016-2021 five year strategy, with animal welfare taking the number one position of five priority areas. The British Veterinary Association (BVA) also launched its new animal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1715,936,578,422,113,1278,1655,1714,1716],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-animal-sentience","tag-animal-welfare","tag-ava","tag-bva","tag-news-2","tag-paul-mcgreevy","tag-robert-johnson","tag-tensions","tag-veterinary-profession"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":5,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":407,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":407,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Two major veterinary associations have listed animal welfare as their top strategic priority in response to overwhelming feedback from veterinarians. In February the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) launched its 2016-2021 five year strategy, with animal welfare taking the number one position of five priority areas. The British Veterinary Association (BVA) also launched its new animal welfare policy, entitled Vets Speaking..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"5":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=5"}},"tags_names":{"1715":{"name":"animal sentience","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=animal-sentience"},"936":{"name":"animal welfare","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=animal-welfare"},"578":{"name":"AVA","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ava"},"422":{"name":"BVA","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=bva"},"113":{"name":"news","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=news-2"},"1278":{"name":"Paul McGreevy","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=paul-mcgreevy"},"1655":{"name":"Robert Johnson","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=robert-johnson"},"1714":{"name":"tensions","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=tensions"},"1716":{"name":"veterinary profession","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=veterinary-profession"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2043,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions\/2043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}