Review by Kathy Lyon (Click on stars for an explanation)

You may purchase this book on Amazon.com.

The conference was divided into four sessions: Principles of veterinary and animal ethics; Justifying ends—the morality of animal use; Ethical analyses of animal use; and Cultural, political, legal and economic considerations.

Each session contained four or five papers presented here in full.

Animal and veterinary ethics have come a long way since treatment of animals became a calling and professionals began to wrest the medical care away from the farmers and farriers by establishing educational forums and awarding doctorates.

Each section in this book represents a presentation at the meeting in 2011, and describes a variation of the struggle to improve animal medicine, treatment of animals, interactions between colleagues, fairness with clients, and respect for the natural world. A review of the history of veterinary care and ethics is well covered. One chapter begins with animal care in 1870, examining animal suffering and determining animals' rights.

As late as 1964, a book on Animal Machines exposed factory style farming and began a campaign to improve treatment of food animals. This was inspired following the publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.

Some of the issues include defining and identifying pharmaceutical companies who sold to veterinarians and those who sold direct to farmers; the introduction of regulations making anesthetics compulsory for certain surgeries; and the 1951 introduction of the RCVS Guide to Veterinary Professional Conduct. The direct topic of ethics did not appear in that publication until the 1961 edition.

The topic of animal welfare and veterinary ethics has been a hard won campaign in favor of animal welfare. One hurdle to overcome that seems to have stragglers is the topic of pain in animals. There are few these days who insist that animals do not feel pain, but thankfully those are being weeded out by retirement or death.

Each presenter has a different take on the subject and all are interesting. Some of the topics discussed are inter-professional conduct—more than etiquette, animal welfare, wildlife welfare, reintroduction of wildlife into a natural environment, reproduction of animals that cannot be reintroduced, use of animals in research, providing a good life for animals, and the personal and professional behavior of veterinarians.

There is much food for thought and room for introspection in this book, and every veterinarian should read it. Aside from what one can learn, there is plenty of material for discussion with clients. Question and answer sections follow each chapter, and many references are given. Virtually all of the presenters are British or European, save for our own Bernard Rollin (Colorado State). He has only one presentation in the book but is listed as a reference for nearly all of the other presenters. (If you remember, two of B. Rollin's books have been reviewed for VIN and may still be in the VIN Bookstore.)

Wiley-Blackwell, 2013

303 pages

ISBN 9781118314807