ABSTRACT: Animal welfare is a complex and often emotive subject, but one that many veterinary professionals care deeply about. However, sometimes we ourselves can actually be barriers to optimising patient welfare. This article looks at some common practices that occur within veterinary clinics and evaluates the potential impacts of our own human behaviour and biases on delivering good patient welfare within the veterinary clinic. It explores how the language we use, the way we perceive the world and the way we interact with our patients may inadvertently influence their behaviour and in turn impact upon their welfare.

Author

Heather Bacon BSC (Hons), BVSC, CertZooMed MRCVS

Heather is the Veterinary Welfare Education and Outreach manager at the University of Edinburgh’s Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE), based within the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. She graduated from the University of Liverpool with a first class degree in Conservation Medicine in 2003, and from the University of Bristol with a degree in Veterinary Medicine in 2005.

Heather’s work at the JMICAWE is focused primarily overseas to improve the welfare of animals by working with non-governmental and veterinary organisations, particularly on the topics of dog population management, zoo animal and exotic pet welfare. Much of this work is focused in Asia where she has almost 10 years of work experience. Heather is responsible for undergraduate veterinary teaching in animal welfare and also runs postgraduate MSc courses on animal behaviour and welfare at the R(D)SVS,

She is a member of the British Veterinary Association’s Ethics and Welfare Advisory Panel and a British Veterinary Zoological Society council member: She sits on the welfare committee of the Zoological Society of London. Heather is a member of European Association of Zoos Aquaria’s Animal Welfare working group. Previously she lived and worked in China as the Veterinary Director at the Animals Asia Foundation, an NGO working to end the trade in bear bile across Asia.

Email: heatherbacon@ed.ac.uk

Keywords: Clinical, welfare, patients,

To cite this article: Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 33 (08) • August 2018 pp227-229

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