Many years ago I heard from a friend that her daughter had quit her job as an assistant at a local vet’s office because she couldn’t bear to be part of what took place there. Inquiring my friend about it, I was shocked to find out that the vet worked with breeders, which meant that he would often help deliver breeding dogs’ puppies, select the top “specimens” and euthanize the “rejects” (normal, happy puppies who weren’t perfect breeding material). My friend’s daughter would help care for and play with the puppies one day and then find out that they had been killed the next.
Now, I’ve never considered myself to be a very naive person. I’m aware of a lot of the ugliness that’s out there, including breeders and pet mills, as well the kind of vets that are part of their operations (who are much like the ambulance-chasing doctors and lawyers that will do anything for a buck, in my view); but I had never made the friendly neighborhood vet connection. Yes, there are vets and then there are vets; and many are more about the bottom line than really caring for the animals they treat. I’m aware, for instance, that too many vets still perform cruel procedures such as declawing in cats (although that’s considered so inhumane that many countries have outlawed it). But the thought that there are regular vets out there who play a willing part in such an inhumane breeding system and are capable of killing healthy puppies simply because they are less than perfect caught me off guard and knocked the wind out of me for a while. It actually affected me so much that I did what many of us do when faced with this kind of information: I couldn’t deal with it, so I buried my head in the sand and didn’t do anything about it. At the time, that was partially due to the fact that I didn’t want to put my friend’s daughter on the spot or get her in trouble, especially since I’m assuming she was bound by confidentiality clauses even after she quit; so I never asked for the vet’s info (all I know is that the vet office was located in Orange County, FL). But my part in the ugly truth is that, although I suffered with that knowledge, it was easier to walk away. After all these years, I don’t know if this is still happening at that particular vet, or even if that vet’s office is still in operation; but I couldn’t forget that story or the more pressing point that such breeders exist and have vets who assist them. So I started doing some research to find out if vets are bound by the same or similar “first, do no harm” oath from the human medical profession. According to a reference article (link below), although the subject of veterinary ethics is supposedly very similar to that of human medical ethics, it “differs greatly in the consideration of the uses of animals; while a doctor’s duty may be to preserve life at nearly all cost, the veterinary surgeon needs to adapt their attitude to health and longevity of life to the purpose of the animal (E.g., farm animals).” This loophole means that our friendly neighborhood vet isn’t breaking any laws by assisting breeders with their purpose of achieving breeding perfection. The same article explains: “Another major difference between veterinary ethics and human medical ethics is the interplay with law. Human medical ethics has driven changes in the law and, to a lesser degree, vice versa. Largely involving cases of human rights a wide ranging variety of high-profile legal challenges in many countries have involved the use of ethics to encourage changes in law (for example, assisted suicide, abortion, duty of care, rights to refuse treatment). Veterinary ethics does not have such a strong interplay. It is rare to have an animal based legal challenge reaching high into the legal system. Cases involving challenges to professionalism and duty of care are largely dealt with via the veterinary governing bodies.” The bottom line is that the veterinary professional is largely self-regulating across the world… Of course, some national veterinarian organizations do attempt to hold veterinarians to a higher standard. The AVMA - American Veterinary Medical Association, for instance, includes the following two principles in its code of ethics: “- A veterinarian shall provide competent veterinary medical clinical care under the terms of a veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR), with compassion and respect for animal welfare and human health. - A veterinarian shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional interactions, and report veterinarians who are deficient in character or competence to the appropriate entities. - A veterinarian shall respect the law and also recognize a responsibility to seek changes to laws and regulations which are contrary to the best interests of the patient and public health.” However, it’s also part of its code of ethics to “respect the rights of clients, colleagues, and other health professionals, and shall safeguard medical information within the confines of the law.” In other words, as long as they are not breaking the existing laws, our friendly neighborhood vet and his breeder pals are left alone. What Can We Do? We can start by not buying from breeders and adopting from animal shelters instead. We can also choose a vet for our animal companions who doesn’t participate in such practices. However, public pressure to change the laws governing these practices (or abolishing them altogether) is what can really make a difference in the long run. We have become a bottom-line kind of society; but the true bottom-line is: it can’t be just about the money. It should never be just about the money. It’s not just business; it’s always personal. Changing such inhumane systems and laws as we take steps towards more conscious practices would certainly benefit the animals; but this is also for the sake of our own humanity. © Gisele Marasca-Vargas; 09/14/2020 giscritters.com Photo by Lydia Torrey on Unsplash Related Articles: https://giscritters.weebly.com/tips-3---cats-are-misunderstood.html References: Veterinary ethics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterinary_ethics Principles of veterinary medical ethics of the AVMAhttps://www.avma.org/resources-tools/avma-policies/principles-veterinary-medical-ethics-avma
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Gisele Marasca-Vargas is a blog writer and an obsessive compulsive and overly sensitive animal lover. Archives
May 2022
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