Tanya Stephens
Chair, Animal Welfare Trust
The AVA’s Animal Welfare Trust is spreading the word on animal welfare and the great care veterinarians have towards all animals.
If you are a veterinarian, it’s self evident you care about animal welfare. It is so much a characteristic of being a vet that a concern for animal welfare is enshrined in codes of conduct and legislation pertaining to vets.
However do you think the general public or, if you are in practice, your clientele, believe you care about animal welfare?
Maybe your clients understand that you care for the welfare of their pets but do you think that they consider you care about the welfare of all animals?
Would they be inclined to ask your opinion on hens in cages, for example? Or would they assume that a question about the use of animals, would be better answered by an animal welfare/advocate organisation, not a vet?
Are you, your colleagues and your clients aware that the AVA supports research into animal welfare?
It is clear we have some work to do for the community to understand that our training and codes of practice ensure vets can speak with authority on animal welfare issues.
The AVA’s Animal Welfare Trust (AWT) supports animal welfare research and community education. It has eye-catching leaflets with a strong message for the public that vets care a great deal for the welfare of all animals and actively seek to improve it. You can find out more about the Animal Welfare Trust: https://www.ava.com.au/donate/awt
Through the AWT, veterinarians can demonstrate their concern for all animals, not just companion ones. I believe promoting and advertising the AWT will go a considerable way towards changing public perception about vets and the AVA.
At my practice we include an AWT leaflet in the sympathy card sent to our clients when their animal dies or is euthanased and a note that a donation has been made to the AWT in memory of their pet. We receive countless messages of thanks and even wine and chocolates! Pet owners appreciate the fact that their pet is remembered in this way.
You can request AWT leaflets from the AVA by emailing awt@ava.com.au. You can put some in your waiting room and include them in sympathy cards.
You never know, maybe next time an opinion is sought on animal welfare, vets will be the first port of call.
