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Veterinarians Discuss Animal Well-being
By Pork news staff

The American Society of Veterinary Medical Association Executives met prior to the American Veterinary Medical Association's Annual Convention in Washington, D.C. The group is composed of representatives of the state veterinary medical associations and allied organizations.

The topic was animal welfare and the veterinary profession. Gestation-sow stalls and poultry cages —  the targets of most of the animal welfare concerns associated with livestock, as well as companion animal issues such as declawing, horse slaughter, and guardianship, were also discussed.

Bernard Rollin, Colorado State University Professor of Philosophy and University Bioethicist, opened the meeting with a presentation discussing philosophy, ethics and morality associated with animal welfare. He told the group that he worked extensively with Smithfield Foods and was instrumental in their recent decision to phase out sow gestation stalls.

According to reports from the American Association of Swine Veterinarians who attended the meeting, Rollin talked about meetings with the National Pork Board to discuss the future of sow housing. In his opinion, "sow stalls are finished and will be removed from the industry within a year." He warned that livestock producers need to "get in line with societal ethics or else changes will be legislated on you." He stated that historical animal-husbandry practices have been replaced with "industrial agriculture" which has "threatened the traditional fair contract between humans and animals, resulting in significant amounts of animal suffering."

Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States, similarly chided swine veterinarians and producers for continued "inhumane practices" associated with sow housing, reports AASV. He cited developments in Florida, Arizona and Oregon that outlawed gestation-sow stalls. He told the group that HSUS has 10 million members (1 in every 30 Americans) with an annual budget of $135 million. His opinion is that "current livestock housing systems are inconsistent with the notion that animals should have sunshine on their backs and the feel of dirt under their feet". He denied that it was the "mission" of HSUS to eliminate the use of animals for food while admitting that he and many of his association's membership are vegetarians, reports AASV.

Pacelle told the group that HSUS supports a program entitled Rural Area Veterinary Services, designed to bring free veterinary services to rural communities. According to the RAVS Web site, the program also "provides valuable training and experience for hundreds of future veterinary professionals that goes far beyond anything they could learn in a classroom alone." Pacelle estimated that the program "touches" about 20 percent of all veterinary students.

While acknowledging the lack of support from AVMA and other veterinary organizations, he promoted HSUS' support of the ban on horse slaughter. He said HSUS' position is based on the opinion that American's would not stand by and watch while a national symbol such as the horse was "butchered for human consumption". When asked how he proposed to deal with the numbers of unwanted horses destined for slaughter, he responded that the public would find a way to address those animals similar to programs targeting unwanted cats and dogs.

Technology and the scientific process were considered part of the "problem" by creating processes that allowed animal agriculture to develop to its current state. Rollin refers to workers in swine facilities as "minimum-wage, often animal-ignorant [having] often no empathy with, or concern for, the animals." The "intelligence", he suggests lies in the "mechanized system", not in the workers, reports AASV. Pacelle expressed concern that livestock veterinarians are "too closely tied" to the industries they serve to be unbiased advocates for the animals under their care.

Gail Golab, DVM, associate director of AVMA's Animal Welfare Division, defended the association's position on livestock welfare issues and gestation-sow stalls. She presented the process through which the AVMA's Animal Welfare Committee evaluated the available scientific literature and derived their current position on gestation stalls that recognizes that no one housing system is consistently better than any other. She proposed that the welfare of the animals is dependent on several factors including, in part, the genetics involved and the farm's management. To which, Pacelle responded that it was only due to the "power of the swine veterinarians" to influence the committee that this decision was reached.

Source: American Association of Swine Veterinarians