Animal Welfare

International Report -- World leaders team up this weekend to spread rabies education and vaccines.

Baton Rouge -- Horse owners in southern Louisiana with equine needs they can't meet or with questions related to storms like Hurricane Gustav have a new resource.

Shreveport, La. -- More than 1,000 animals -- including cats, dogs, lizards, rabbits, turtles and snakes -- filled the Louisiana Mega Shelter to capacity Sept. 1 as Hurricane Gustav hit.

As a California veterinarian, my clients expect the best possible care and advice for their pets and horses. However, my clients also ask me about other animal-welfare issues, and the public expects the state's premier veterinary organization, the California Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA), to weigh in on important policy matters related to the welfare of animals.

In this article, I discuss 10 common myths about animal, particularly canine, behavior--misconceptions that may increase the likelihood that a pet will develop a behavior problem and, thus, can lead to the pet's abandonment or euthanasia.

Saratoga Springs, N.Y. - The Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Safety Committee, formed in May to seek ways to improve the health and safety of racehorses, will announce its latest recommendations Aug. 17 at the club's annual Round Table at Gideon Putnam Resort.

Paradise, Calif. - Thick smoke forced him from his home, but it hasn't kept Dr. Mike Seely from visiting a local evacuation shelter where he checks on hundreds of pets and livestock displaced by the wildfires that burn throughout California.

Although floodwaters receded along the banks of the Mississippi, the aftermath will continue to be felt for months and even years.

New Orleans - Veterinarians once again squared off on animal-welfare and human-health issues at this year's American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) House of Delegates meeting.

Sacramento, Calif. - Municipalities won't be able to ban state-sanctioned medical practices if a proposed bill passes in California.

New Orleans - Whether even to discuss a ban on antimicrobials in livestock feed for growth promotion split the House of Delegates nearly in half at the annual American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) conference.

Impotent might be the best word to describe a law that would have required almost every cat and dog older than 4 months to be spayed or neutered before the measure was dramatically altered on the California Senate floor.

New Orleans - Delegates from across the country considered 16 resolutions - some contentious, such as the one to support changes in veal husbandry - at the AVMA House of Delegates (HoD) meeting in late July.

Kenilworth, N.J. - Schering-Plough HomeAgain LLC released its advanced ISO (134 kHz) microchip to all its customers in the United States. The introduction addresses recommendations from many major veterinary and animal welfare organizations.

Tampa, Fla. - Roger Clarke, BVSc, was recognized for advancing animal welfare through extraordinary service and furthering humane principles, education and understanding.

Shaumburg, Ill. - To help veterinarians and the public better understand animal-welfare issues, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) launched its first Web section devoted to animal-welfare information.

Portland, Ore. - 5/8/08 - Sharon Harmon, executive director of the Oregon Humane Society, is expected to receive the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Humane Award.

Reap the benefits of a well-managed relationship with an animal-welfare group.

Springfield, Ill. - A proposed ban on the use of gas for animal euthanasia, considered inhumane treatment, has come under fire from state veterinary leaders who argue the procedure has merit and should not be outlawed completely.

Everyone can start to break the impasse between private practitioners and shelters by listening.

A number of contemporary developments leads one to conclude that the role of the veterinarian in society is in a state of flux.

Fort Collins, Colo. -- He's been preaching about pain management for more than a decade. CSU ethicist Bernard Rollin found a choir with the release of AAHA and AAFP guidelines.

Misbehaving is the most dangerous thing a companion animal can do.

Shelters can adopt out only so many animals, says Kate Hurley, DVM, MPVM, director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis. So the biggest impact on euthanasia numbers will be on the intake side of the equation, not the adoption side.

Although it is obvious to veterinarians that a Border collie and a 96-year-old woman likely make a poor pet-owner match, it may not be obvious to a potential owner who has never been around Border collies. Indeed, one reason healthy animals wind up in shelters, says Gail Golab, PhD, DVM, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) interim director for animal welfare, is because people "acquire a pet with an expectation the pet doesn't fulfill."