AR-News: Activist agendas sway veterinary profession

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Activist agendas sway veterinary profession 
    
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October 1, 2003     
By: <A HREF="http://www.dvmnewsmagazine.com/dvm/author/authorInfo.jsp?id=214">Jennifer Fiala</A>  
DVM Newsmagazine    
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As a swelling animal activist movement heads mainstream, evidence of its 
influence is creeping into the veterinary profession.

To an outsider, initial moves toward amending livestock standards, drivers to 
increase the economic value of pets and the legal profession&apos;s newfound 
passion for animal law might not appear groundbreaking. But for those familiar 
with the conservative veterinary profession, each step in line with activists 
seems almost revolutionary.

The profession is evolving, says legal expert Jim Wilson, DVM, JD. 
Unsuspecting veterinarians could be in for a surprise, he warns.

"On the whole, veterinarians don't grasp the importance of these issues as 
they relate to the changing status of animals," says Wilson, head of Priority 
Veterinary Management Consultants in Yardley, Pa. "The result is most still 
think of animals as nothing more than property when society's moving to 
anthropomorphize them. Veterinarians are the original animal welfarists, but these signs 
from society mean life as a veterinarian will never be the same."

Pushing the envelope at AVMA

Change became most evident in July, when the American Veterinary Medical 
Association's (AVMA) delegates suspended their rules and drew up an impromptu 
resolution to rethink whether industry's sow gestation stalls should still be 
considered welfare appropriate.

The decree, approved at the group's annual meeting in Denver, was thrown 
together after more than an hour of heated debate among members. What's more, much 
of the language was taken directly from a resolution submitted by Farm 
Sanctuary - an activist group that's proposed the initiative for more than five 
years but until now had largely been ignored.

Upping pet worth

Reformations of animal protection laws within state legislatures reflect this 
trend. New civil statutes broaden legal protection of companion animals from 
owners. More than 40 states now deem cruelty to animals a felony while animal 
abandonment is a crime in 18 states, the American Veterinary Medical Law 
Association reports.
But the most significant venue for increased animal value is the nation's 
courts. The law traditionally nixes emotional damage remedies for the loss of 
pets, but judges faced with a barrage of these lawsuits are growing reluctant to 
dismiss them. Any decision to define pets as worth more than their fair market 
value would expose practitioners to increased litigation thereby forcing 
insurance premiums to skyrocket, experts predict. 

"Court awards are getting big enough to create a financial opportunity for 
lawyers to make a living; that's where the real movement is going," Wilson says. 
"This will become all about economic opportunity. That's why you're seeing 
more and more of these cases."

Making headway

In 2000, Tennessee became the first state to grant pet owners rights to pain 
and suffering damages as well as punitive damages for abuse and neglect. A 
version of that bill passed in Illinois last year while others are lurking in 
Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York legislatures.

Rick Alampi, executive director of the New Jersey Veterinary Medical 
Association (NJVMA), is working to block a bill allowing uncapped damages for 
emotional distress from resurfacing in the state Legislature. The measure currently is 
dead in committee.

"These activists are pretty well coordinated and pretty smart, and it's tough 
to keep them down," Alampi says. "I think that the pressure is coming to bear 
on Joe and Jane Practitioner. People's attitudes toward animals have changed 
substantially."

No longer the radical fringe

That's because animal activism has become the "cause du jour," says Dr. Gail 
Golab, AVMA assistant director for professional and public affairs. Widespread 
public acceptance can be explained by society's detachment from the farm, she 
adds. 
"People like causes; they're looking to latch on to something," Golab says. 
"They're doting on their companion animals, taking their feelings and applying 
them across species. Pigs aren't dogs, yet people don't understand that so 
they're equating how their animal lives in the house to how animals live on a 
farm. This disconnect between the public and the scientific community, it's been 
building for a decade."

Hit from all sides

Nowhere is animal activism more prevalent than in California, where state 
veterinary leaders battle city declaw and cosmetic surgery bans, farm animal 
welfare petitions, activist-laden legislative bills and the movement to change pet 
"owner" to "guardian," which is spreading among municipalities.

Many activist organizations are based in the state, and Los Angeles is home 
to the annual Animal Rights Conference, where activists gather for educational 
symposiums offering guidance on how to manipulate state legislatures, lobby, 
attract volunteers and raise funds.

The pressure has become so great, the California Veterinary Medical 
Association (CVMA) plans to meet this month to discuss activist topics and formulate 
positions on the most rampant issues.

"It's on everyone's table these days - cat declaws, tail docking, dangerous 
dogs, owner/guardianship. There's a lot of disagreement within the veterinary 
community on what our positions should be," says Dr. Dick Schumacher, CVMA 
executive director. "This discontent is a reflection of the society we live in, 
and as an association, we follow all these issues very closely."

Positive, negative impacts

For all the battling, animal activists aren't solely to blame. In fact, much 
of the discontent comes from within the veterinary community as was evident at 
this year's AVMA House of Delegates meeting.

"There's definitely been a push from the activist segment, but to entirely 
credit them would be misleading," Golab says. "Animal welfare itself has emerged 
as a science, and there is a lot of information from Ph.D. researchers coming 
out as a result. Veterinarians are paying attention."

An increased number of women in the profession also has heightened 
sensitivity toward animals, says veteran animal rights activist Dr. Elliot Katz.
"There will always be naysayers," he says. "But I think this movement is 
raising the bootstraps of the veterinary profession."
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Jennifer Fiala  
>Associate Editor    
><A HREF="http://www.dvmnewsmagazine.com/dvm/author/authorInfo.jsp?id=214">About Jennifer Fiala
</A>email: <A HREF="mailto:jfiala at advanstar.com">jfiala at advanstar.com</A>     
    
    
    
    
    
 
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