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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
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- Sprache: Englisch
Ethics IN Veterinary Practice
An incisive examination of relevant and contemporary ethical issues facing veterinary practitioners, students, instructors, and animal researchers
In Ethics in Veterinary Practice: Balancing Conflicting Interests, a team of distinguished scholars delivers a foundational exploration of animal ethics and a guide to examining contemporary issues and dilemmas that arise regularly in veterinary practice. The book offers comprehensive, quickly accessible, and up-to-date information on veterinary ethics with content devoted to unique issues by practice type.
The authors offer a primary resource for veterinary ethics useful for veterinarians, faculty, instructors, senior undergraduates, and veterinary students that focuses on recognizing and addressing real-life ethical dilemmas and relevant philosophical discussions about the moral status of animals, animal rights, and interests.
Ethics in Veterinary Practice presents material on integrative medicine, animal pain, moral stress, and the future of veterinary ethics. Readers will also find:
- A thorough introduction to a theoretical basis for veterinary ethics, including discussions of animal welfare, ethical theories, and legal issues
- Comprehensive explorations of clinical veterinary ethics, including discussions of veterinary advocacy, ethical dilemmas, professionalism, economic issues, and medical errors
- Practical discussions of ethical concerns by practice type, including companion animals, equines, and animals used for food
- In-depth examination of emerging ethical concerns including animal use in veterinary education and animal maltreatment
Perfect for practicing veterinarians, veterinary students, and veterinary technicians and nurses, Ethics in Veterinary Practice: Balancing Conflicting Interests will also earn a place in the libraries of instructors teaching veterinary ethics, as well as biomedical and animal ethicists.
“As veterinary medicine becomes more technologically and socially complex, interest in ethics is growing. Ethics in Veterinary Practice provides a needed reference from the North American perspective, for anyone facing ethical dilemmas (i.e., all of us). Suitable for practitioners, students, and technicians, the book supplies factual background and practical guidance for navigation accompanied by a clear ethical analysis of common dilemmas in all aspects of veterinary medicine.”
Lisa Moses
Veterinary Specialist in Internal Medicine
Center for Bioethics
Harvard Medical School, USA
“Ethics in Veterinary Practice is a statement of both the influence of Bernie Rollin’s lifetime work and of the coming of age of veterinary ethics. From the moral status of animals to veterinary ethical dilemmas, from medical errors to professionalism, from economic issues to end-of-life decision making, Ethics in Veterinary Practice leaves no stone unturned. A must-read for students and professionals alike.”
Manuel Magalhães Sant'Ana
European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law
University of Lisbon, Portugal
“This book makes a valuable contribution to the subject, hosting writing from a number of prominent scholars in the field. The book bravely tackles several contemporary issues including veterinary corporations, moral stress and medical errors as well as providing updated insights into the history of the profession and veterinary professionalism. Throughout, the complex and contested place of animals within our society is openly and thoughtfully explored from a veterinary perspective. “
Vanessa Ashall
European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law
University of York, UK
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Ethics in Veterinary Practice
Balancing Conflicting Interests
Edited by
Barry Kipperman, DVM, DACVIM, MSc, DACAWInstructor, Veterinary EthicsUniversity of California at DavisSchool of Veterinary MedicineDavis, CA, USA;Adjunct Associate ProfessorDepartment of Veterinary Medicine and SurgeryUniversity of MissouriCollege of Veterinary MedicineColumbia, MO, USA
Bernard E. Rollin, PhDUniversity Distinguished Professor EmeritusProfessor of PhilosophyProfessor of Animal SciencesProfessor of Biomedical SciencesUniversity BioethicistColorado State UniversityFort Collins, CO, USA
This edition first published 2022
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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The right of Barry Kipperman and Bernard E. Rollin to be identified as the authors of the editorial material in this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kipperman, Barry, 1958- author. | Rollin, Bernard E., author.Title: Ethics in veterinary practice : balancing conflicting interests / edited by Barry Kipperman, DVM, DACVIM, MSc, DACAW, Instructor, Veterinary Ethics, University of California at Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine, Davis, CA, USA, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, University of Missouri, College of Veterinary Medicine, Columbia, MO, USA, Bernard Rollin, PhD, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Professor of Philosophy, Professor of Animal Sciences, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, University Bioethicist, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USADescription: Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2021053307 | ISBN 9781119791195 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119791218 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119791225 (epub) | ISBN 9781119791256 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: Veterinary medicine--Moral and ethical aspects. | Veterinarians--Professional ethics.Classification: LCC SF756.39 .K57 2022 | DDC 179/.3--dc23/eng/20211206LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021053307
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In Memoriam—Dr. Bernard E. Rollin (1943–2021)
In 2002 I was suffering from conditions inherent to the veterinary profession and referral practice that regularly limited my capacity to help my patients. Having received no training in ethics in veterinary school, I wasn’t prepared for this. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t articulate it. As one would call a rabbi, priest, or therapist for help, I called Bernie. He commiserated with my circumstance, taught me about the concept of moral stress, and a friendship was born. I asked if he would be willing to participate in roundtable discussions on ethics at national veterinary meetings. It was Bernie’s star power that opened the door to get ethics discussions on the map. These efforts changed my perspective from being a victim to feeling empowered.
Bernie inspired my interest in veterinary ethics, especially by his landmark books An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics (2006) and Animal Rights and Human Morality (2006). He presented what I perceived as “doing the right thing for animals” in erudite, yet understandable and compelling language. Bernie supported my decision to pursue a Master’s degree in animal welfare and ethics, writing a letter of reference, and being my faculty advisor for my dissertation. When I was appointed to teach ethics at UC Davis, my first call to share my elation was to Bernie. We collaborated on two research projects published in 2018 and 2020. In the fall of 2020, we decided to work together on a new ethics text. In addition to writing two chapters and editing, Bernie was instrumental in suggesting ideas for chapter topics and suitable expert authors.
Bernie became ill while this book was in the final editing stages, and he passed away yesterday, prior to its publication. Even though I understood that he was very ill, I cried when his wife Linda called me with the terrible news.
We were at a meeting in Las Vegas many years ago after an ethics session, when a student of his approached us to tell him what an influence he had on her life. I’ll never forget that moment, as those of us entrusted with teaching can only dream about having such a profound impact on our students.
Bernie’s life undoubtedly similarly touched many of this book’s authors and readers. He was an iconic figure, a force in the animal rights movement, and a hero to many. His views validated those who questioned the status quo regarding how animals are treated. The animals have lost a brilliant, fearless, and persuasive advocate, and I have lost a mentor, colleague, and friend. For Bernie, ethics was an instrument to improve the lives of animals. He taught me that advocacy and ethics are complementary. I hope that this book honors and perpetuates his legacy.
Barry Kipperman
November 20, 2021
Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright
In Memoriam—Dr. B.ernard E. Rollin (1943–2021)
List of Contributors
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Section 1 A Fundamental Basis for Veterinary Ethics
1 Why Do Animals Matter? The Moral Status of Animals
2 Animal Welfare: Science, Policy, and the Role of Veterinarians
3 Animal Ethics and the Evolution of the Veterinary Profession in the United States
4 Introduction to Veterinary Ethics
5 Veterinary Ethics and the Law
Section 2 Clinical Veterinary Ethics
6 Professionalism
7 Veterinary Advocacies and Ethical Dilemmas
8 Economic Issues
9 Medical Errors
Section 3 Ethical Concerns by Practice Type
10 Companion Animals
Shelter Medicine
Outdoor Cats
Overpopulation
Neutering/Gonadectomy
Conformational Disorders: Brachycephaly
Convenience Surgeries
Behavioral Medicine
Referrals
Futile Intervention
Obesity
Access to Veterinary Care: A National Family Crisis
11 Laboratory Animals
12 Food Animals
13 Equines
14 Animals in Zoos, Aquaria, and Free-Ranging Wildlife
15 Exotic Pets
16 Integrative Medicine
17 Corporate Veterinary Medicine
Section 4 Emerging Ethical Concerns
18 Animal Use in Veterinary Education
19 Animal Pain
20 Animal Maltreatment
21 Death
22 Moral Stress
23 The Future of Veterinary Ethics: History, Diagnosis, and Prognosis of an Evolving Research Field
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Figures
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Ocean State Veterinary...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Influence of system...
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Three dimensions for...
Chapter 18
Figure 18.1 Modern simulations may...
Figure 18.2 Modern simulations may...
Figure 18.3 Dissection simulations may...
Figure 18.4 Professionally performed dissections...
Figure 18.5 Histological anatomy may...
Figure 18.6 Simulations may provide...
Figure 18.7 Prodissector’s “Face” simulation...
Figure 18.8 Simulations may provide...
Figure 18.9 Simulations may illustrate...
Figure 18.10 Simulations may allow...
Figure 18.11 Author Andrew Knight...
Figure 18.12 Cast of the vasculature...
Figure 18.13 Cast of the airways...
Figure 18.14 Very large animals...
Figure 18.15 Mannequins such as...
Figure 18.16 Rescue Critters’ K9...
Figure 18.17 Surgical simulators include...
Figure 18.18 Simulated bones can...
Figure 18.19 and 18.20 The Pulsating Organ...
Figure 18.21 University of Queensland...
Chapter 19
Figure 19.1 Maia with a large...
Figure 19.2 The VET decision...
Chapter 20
Figure 20.1 Pyramid of the...
Chapter 21
Figure 21.1 Decision tree to provide
List of Tables
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Components of informed...
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Attributes of veterinary...
Table 6.2 AVMA Principles of...
Table 6.3 RCVS Principles of...
Chapter 7
Table 7.1 Veterinarian interests.
Table 7.2 Types of ethical...
Table 7.3 Framework for addressing...
Chapter 9
Table 9.1 Definitions of types...
Table 9.2 Circumstances associated with...
Table 9.3 System 1 vs. System...
Table 9.4 The DISCLOSE medical...
Chapter 10
Table 10.3.1 Change in US dog...
Chapter 11
Table 11.1 Stakeholders, costs, and...
Table 11.2 Six principles of...
Table 11.3 Roles of veterinarians...
Chapter 15
Table 15.1 Exotic pet ownership...
Table 15.2 EMODE includes considerations...
Chapter 18
Table 18.1 Studies in veterinary...
Table 18.2 Minimum information about...
Chapter 19
Table 19.1 Common behavior changes...
Table 19.2 Common behavior changes...
Chapter 20
Table 20.1 Signs suggestive of...
Chapter 23
Table 23.1 Status of the animal...
Table 23.2 Veterinary ethics tool...
Guide
Cover
Title page
Copyright
In Memoriam—Dr. B.ernard E. Rollin (1943–2021)
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Acknowledgments
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
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List of Contributors
Melissa Bain, DVM, DACVB, MS, DACAW
Professor, Clinical Animal Behavior
Department of Veterinary Medicine and Epidemiology
University of California at Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine
Davis, CA, USA
Michael J. Blackwell, DVM, MPH
Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS (Ret.);
Director, Program for Pet Health Equity
Center for Behavioral Health Research
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Knoxville, TN, USA
Timothy E. Blackwell, DVM, MSc, PhD
Belwood, Ontario
Canada
Gary Block, DVM, MS, DACVIM
Ocean State Veterinary Specialists
East Greenwich, RI, USA
Larry Carbone, DVM, PhD, DACLAM, DACAW
Director of Institutional Animal Care and Use Program (retired)
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA, USA
Sathya K. Chinnadurai, DVM, MS, DACZM, DACVAA, DACAW
Senior Vice President of Animal Health and Welfare
Chicago Zoological Society
Brookfield, IL, USA
Jim Clark, DVM, MBA
Instructor, Professional Skills
University of California at Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine
Davis, CA, USA
Barbara de Mori, PhD
Professor
Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science
Ethics Laboratory for Veterinary Medicine, Conservation, and Animal Welfare
University of Padua
Legnaro, Italy
Julie D. Dinnage, DVM
Executive Director (retired)
Association of Shelter Veterinarians
Apex, NC, USA
Christian Dürnberger, PhD
Unit of Ethics and Human-Animal Studies
Messerli Research Institute
University of Veterinary Medicine
Vienna Medical University, Vienna, University Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Michael Dutton, DVM, MS, DABVP (Canine & Feline Practice, Avian Practice, Exotic Companion Mammal Practice, Reptile & Amphibian Practice), CVPP, CertAqV
Managing Veterinarian
Weare Animal Hospital
Weare, NH, USA;
Hopkinton Animal Hospital
Hopkinton, NH, USA
Thomas Edling, DVM, MSpVM, MPH
Chief Veterinary Officer
American Humane
Washington, DC, USA
David Favre, JD
Professor of Law
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI, USA
Brian Forsgren, DVM
Gateway Animal Clinic (retired)
Cleveland, OH, USA;
Consultant
The Stanton Foundation
Jackie Gai, DVM
Director of Veterinary Services
Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)
San Andreas, CA, USA
Carol Gray, BVMS, MA, PhD, MRCVS
Principal Lecturer in Veterinary Nursing
Hartpury University
Gloucester, UK;
Honorary Research Associate
University of Liverpool
School of Law and Social Justice
Liverpool, UK
Herwig Grimm, PhD
Unit of Ethics and Human-Animal Studies
Messerli Research Institute
University of Veterinary Medicine
Vienna Medical University Vienna, University Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Carrie Jurney, DVM, DACVIM
Not One More Vet
San Francisco, CA, USA;
Jurney Veterinary Neurology
Redwood City, CA, USA
Barry Kipperman, DVM, DACVIM, MSc, DACAW
Instructor, Veterinary Ethics
University of California at Davis
School of Veterinary Medicine
Davis, CA, USA;
Adjunct Associate Professor
University of Missouri
College of Veterinary Medicine
Columbia, MO, USA
Andrew Knight, BSc (Vet. Biol.), BVMS, PhD, MANZCVS (Animal Welfare), Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL), Dip ACAW, FRCVS, PFHEA
Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics & Founding Director
Centre for Animal Welfare
University of Winchester, UK;
Adjunct Professor
Griffith University
School of Environment and Science
Queensland, Australia
Joy Mench, PhD
Professor Emeritus
Department of Animal Science and Center for Animal Welfare
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA, USA
Bea Monteiro, DVM, PhD, PgDip
Research Advisor
Université de Montréal
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Saint-Hyacinthe, QC, Canada
Liz H. Mossop, BVM&S, MMedSci (Clin Ed), PhD, FRCVS
Deputy Vice Chancellor
University of Lincoln
Brayford Pool
Lincoln, UK
Shaw Perrin, DVM
Large Animal Services
College of Veterinary Medicine
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH, USA
Anne Quain, BA (Hons), BScVet (Hons), BVSc (Hons), MVetStud, GradCertEdStud (HigherEd), MANZCVS (Animal Welfare), Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL)
Senior Lecturer
Sydney School of Veterinary Science
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
David W. Ramey, DVM
Ramey Equine
Chatsworth, CA, USA
Sheilah Robertson, BVMS (Hons), PhD, DACVAA, DECVAA, DACAW, DECAWBM (AWSEL), MRCVS
Senior Medical Director
Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice Inc.
Lutz, FL, USA;
Courtesy Professor
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences
University of Florida
College of Veterinary Medicine
Gainesville, FL, USA
Narda G. Robinson, DO, DVM, MS, FAAMA
President, CEO
CuraCore MED and CuraCore VET
Fort Collins, CO, USA
Bernard E. Rollin, PhD
University Bioethicist
University Distinguished Professor
Professor of Philosophy
Professor of Animal Sciences
Professor of Biomedical Sciences
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO, USA
Andrew Rowan, BS, MA (oxon), DPhil
President, WellBeing International
Potomac, MD, USA;
Adjunct Professor
Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
N. Grafton, MA, USA
Martha Smith-Blackmore, DVM
Visiting Fellow
Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA, USA;
President
Forensic Veterinary Investigations, LLC
Boston, MA, USA
Svenja Springer, Dr.med.vet, PhD
Unit of Ethics and Human-Animal Studies
Messerli Research Institute
University of Veterinary Medicine
Vienna Medical University Vienna, University Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Bernard Unti, PhD
Senior Principal Strategist, Communications
Humane Society of the United States
Washington, DC, USA
Jennifer Walker, MSc, DVM, PhD, DACVPM
Director Quality and Care
Danone North America
White Plains, NY, USA
James W. Yeates, BVSc, BSc, PhD, MBA, DWEL, FRCVS
Chief Executive Officer
World Federation for Animals
Boston, MA, USA
Miriam A. Zemanova, PhD
Research Fellow
University of Fribourg
Environmental Sciences and Humanities Institute
Fribourg, Switzerland;
Scientific Associate
Animalfree Research
Bern, Switzerland
Foreword
Ethical discussions among veterinary students or veterinarians sometimes center on our obligations to animals, animal owners, or on the societal responsibilities facing veterinarians. In these conversations, one frequently discovers that some practices are deemed essentially good and need to be perpetuated, while others are inherently bad and should be avoided. Until these discussions become more informed, veterinarians struggle with this dualist vision where it may be a challenge to find common ground on which to agree.
As we learn and think about these complicated issues, we are reminded of the wise words of Oscar Wilde: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” It is soon clear that things are hardly ever black and white, and a broad range of colors permeates these discussions. When this first happens, we struggle to refine our answers, and finding a defensible position becomes a greater challenge. An understanding of veterinary ethics becomes fundamental in shaping these opinions.
Veterinarians deal with conflicting situations daily. We may be expected to conduct procedures we find objectionable because our hospital offers them. We deal with clients who make requests with which we disagree. We witness practices unacceptable in one species being done in others. We can improve the condition of a patient but may be prevented from taking care of them. Our responses to many of these circumstances have an ethical foundation. Unfortunately, traditional veterinary education models emphasize the mechanics of how to do certain things rather than how to decide whether it is a good idea to do them, and both questions are equally relevant.
It is in this context that Ethics in Veterinary Practice becomes an important academic resource for our profession. It offers critical background to pertinent issues that veterinarians frequently encounter, provides a framework for evaluating ambiguity, and discusses the implications of these relevant and critical decisions.
The introductory chapters focus on the relevance of ethics to decisions about animal welfare and the parallel that exists between ethics and the laws that regulate our interactions with animals. In the clinical ethics section, economic issues and medical errors are discussed; the authors also reflect upon the relevance of the social contract that veterinarians enter and how this impacts our professional behavior. This book includes chapters focusing on the main categories of veterinary practice so those interested in a particular species or niche can proceed to a deeper level in their reflection. Finally, the concluding chapters include an overview of current ethical issues, like animal pain and our responsibility in alleviating it, and our duty in defending animals from mistreatment. Included sections additionally explore issues associated with the use of animals in education and the impact that cognitive dissonance and decisions conflicting with our personal values have on veterinarians’ mental health.
Veterinarians have a commitment, dictated by our professional oaths, to ensure that the health and welfare of animals under our care are protected. Veterinarians must do this with integrity while juggling the interests of the client, the needs of their veterinary practice, and the concerns of society. It is easy to agree that, in doing so, veterinarians are involved in ethical decisions. Ethics in Veterinary Practice provides a necessary structure to help veterinarians navigate some of these difficult considerations. It is a must-read for veterinary professionals whom society entrusts with the care of our animals.
Jose M. Peralta, DVM, PhD
Diplomate of the American College of Animal Welfare
European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law
Professor of Animal Welfare
College of Veterinary Medicine
Western University of Health Sciences
Preface
It has been more than 15 years since Dr. Bernie Rollin published the last textbook on veterinary ethics in North America. Since then, the field of veterinary ethics has expanded internationally, resulting in a steady increase in papers addressing ethical concerns. This book incorporates this literature for those interested in veterinary ethics regarding longstanding concerns such as medically unnecessary surgery and what the profession should do to mitigate the consequences of economic limitations on veterinary care, and emerging issues such as the use of animals in veterinary education and ethics consultation services. Bernie and I are fortunate to have assembled an impressive array of global scholars and practitioners who have contributed to this effort. This book comprises four sections: fundamental principles and concepts that inform the remainder of the chapters; clinical ethical concerns relevant to all veterinary clinicians; ethical implications in the veterinary profession by practice type, so the practitioner can focus on issues relevant to their niche in the profession and so students can prepare for what they may encounter in practice; and the last section addresses emerging concerns in veterinary ethics. Dr. Rollin taught and wrote about veterinary ethics for over 40 years, and I have been fortunate enough to stand on his shoulders for the past 20 years. I hope this book encourages you to think about these issues, reminds you of your beliefs about the moral status of animals, and inspires you toward creating a more ethical veterinary profession.
Barry Kipperman
Introduction
When I prepared to write the first edition of my book Animal Rights and Human Morality in the late 1970s, it seemed clear to me that social concern about animal treatment, relatively embryonic then, would inevitably proliferate and become a major social issue. Since the publication of my book An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics in 2006, much has occurred that is relevant to veterinary ethics. Public concern regarding farm animal welfare and confinement and the use of animals for research, testing, and education has increased dramatically, and with that public expectation of veterinary involvement in addressing these issues. A social movement for increasing the economic value of companion animals has steadily gained momentum, as have the demands for augmented legal status of these animals. Veterinary specialization continues to grow (including a specialty in animal welfare) as has veterinarian utilization of complementary and alternative medicine and hospice and palliative care. Concern with animal pain and distress and their control has proliferated beyond what I ever dared hope for, evidenced by the recent acknowledgment of veterinary professionals to prevent and alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress. Studies are documenting what common sense would suggest: that animals are stressed when visiting or staying in veterinary hospitals. All of these, of course, pose major ethical challenges for the veterinary profession.
This new textbook reflects these concerns, and contains new material on professionalism, ethical dilemmas, futile intervention, economic issues, medical errors, access to veterinary care, the welfare concerns of brachycephalic dogs, animals in zoos, aquaria, and free-ranging wildlife, corporate veterinary medicine, animal use in veterinary education, animal pain, animal maltreatment, death, moral stress, and the future of veterinary ethics. I hope this will help the veterinary community engage these issues.
I am often asked, “When will you retire?” My reply is when they carry me out. As long as I’m physically and mentally healthy, I will continue my battle for what Gandhi called the “most disenfranchised members of society.” I have been blessed to have the opportunity to work in this area and would not have chosen any other path. I have seen many hideous and evil things, and I have seen enough good to balance it out. While much has improved, too much remains the same for billions of animals. Individuals can effect meaningful change and I hope this book inspires others to do so. There is no better legacy than diminishing the suffering one confronts.
Bernard E. Rollin
Acknowledgments
I’m thankful to my mother for fostering a reverence for animals, and to all my interns, associates, technicians, clients, and students for challenging me and asking tough questions during my career as an internist and instructor. To my friends and colleagues Dr. Larry Gilman for supporting me throughout my career and who texted me, “You’ve found your niche!”, after attending one of my first lectures as an instructor, and Dr. Rene Gandolfi, a veterinarian by day and closet philosopher, who gave me the book A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice 25 years ago, and who had the vision to initiate ethics discussions at local veterinary association meetings. I’d like to recognize Dr. Jose Peralta and Dr. Jim Reynolds for encouraging me to pursue specialization in animal welfare, and Dr. Fritha Langford at the University of Edinburgh for accepting me into the Master’s program which inspired my transition from clinical practice to academia. I’m appreciative of the time, expertise, and knowledge of our contributing authors and to the editors at Wiley for seeing the book to its fruition. I wish to acknowledge Jerry Tannenbaum for his Veterinary Ethics textbook, which acted as my sole resource for many years when faced with ethical questions and who provided me with an opportunity to teach ethics as a guest speaker in his class at UC Davis. This book is dedicated to Dr. Bernard Rollin, one of the pioneers in the field of veterinary ethics.
Barry Kipperman
Linda Rollin on behalf of Bernard Rollin:
Because of the passing of Bernard Rollin while this book was in its final stages, he did not have the opportunity to write a section acknowledging those responsible for producing this book. Instead, as his wife of 57 years, who knew well to whom Bernie was grateful for their contributions to his work, I try here to express what I know were his feelings.
Bernie was grateful for the contributions to his work, this book, and those that preceded it, to many:
To every student he ever taught, including those in his classes and those in the gym who would listen to his ideas and provide some of their own.
To the graduate students who carried the torch to future generations of students and others.
To the academics from all over the world who came to Colorado to work with him, and who provided a global perspective to his ideas while giving him the opportunity to share his thinking worldwide, as well as those who translated his writings into many other languages, thereby broadening the influence of his ideas.
To every co-author or contributor to the books he authored, without whose work the books would have been diminished, and to those who crafted the clever ethical questions that provided a platform for him to teach by answering them.
To every layperson, mechanic, barber, or waitstaff who had no doubts that animals are sentient (unlike academics who would quibble over it), and who, upon learning what he did, agreed with his views, applauded him, and regaled him with their own stories.
To the farmers and ranchers who inspired his understanding of husbandry, and to those who took his ideas and ran with them, improving the lives of the creatures they raised.
To the editors who made his books better, even as they enraged him with their demands for footnotes.
To the innumerable veterinarians who offered their perspectives and insights, and who inspired his work to provide an ethical foundation for what they do.
To the representatives of the many organizations that invited him to talk to them, and who offered hospitality, whether near to home or in faraway places that he might otherwise never have visited.
To all those who cannot easily be categorized, who influenced and inspired, by happenstantial meeting, or by decades-long friendship.
Section 1 A Fundamental Basis for Veterinary Ethics
1 Why Do Animals Matter? The Moral Status of Animals
Bernard E. Rollin
Philosophers and Moral Status
Ever since human beings began to think in a systematic, ordered fashion, they have been fascinated by moral questions. Is moral concern something owed by human beings only to human beings? Twenty-five hundred years of moral philosophy have tended to suggest that this is the case, not by systematic argument, but simply by taking it for granted. An entity has moral status “If … its interests morally matter … for the entity’s own sake” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2021). In other words, moral status relates to our duties, responsibilities, and obligations to others. Few thinkers have come to grips with the question of what makes a thing a moral object, and one wonders why. Surely the question of whether animals are direct objects of moral concern is a legitimate subject for inquiry. Yet, while examining the history of philosophy, there is very little discussion of the moral status of animals. What has prompted our ignoring of this question? Perhaps a cultural bias that sees animals as tools. Or, perhaps, a sense of guilt mixed with fear of where the argument may lead. For if it turns out that reason requires that other animals are as much within the scope of moral concern as are humans, we must view our entire history as well as all aspects of our daily lives from a new perspective.
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) argued that only rational beings can count as moral agents and that the scope of moral concern therefore extends only to rational beings. He believed that only humans could entertain, understand, and formulate statements that are universal in scope, therefore only humans are rational. In contrast, animals were believed to be subject to stimulus and response reactions. Kant concluded that only rational beings are “ends in themselves”: that is, beings that are not to be used as means to achieve some immediate or long-term goal. Animals had only instrumental value: any worth they had related to their usefulness to humans. The position linking rationality, language, and moral status may briefly be outlined as follows:
Only humans are rational.
Only humans possess language.
Only humans are objects of moral concern.
But if only rational and linguistic beings fall within the scope of moral concern, it is difficult to see how infants, children, the mentally disabled, the senile, or the comatose can be considered legitimate objects of moral concern. This shows that rationality and language do not represent a necessary condition for moral concern.
In a tradition most frequently associated with St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) and Kant and incorporated into the legal systems of most civilized societies beginning in the late eighteenth century, cruelty to animals (see Chapter 20) was vigorously proscribed, though animals themselves were denied moral status. Most legal definitions of cruelty involve three criteria: (i) expert evidence of physical or mental suffering beyond a reasonable doubt; (ii) the suffering was unnecessary, unjustified, or illegitimate; and (iii) an intention to cause harm. Aquinas and Kant argued that allowing cruelty to animals would have a pernicious psychological effect upon humans; that is, if people are allowed to be cruel to animals, they will eventually abuse people, which is socially undesirable. Therefore, humans had only indirect duties to animals.
Why can we not broaden the anti-cruelty ethic to cover other animal treatment? It is because only a tiny percentage of animal suffering is the result of deliberate, malevolent acts. Cruelty would not cover animal suffering that results from industrial agriculture, safety testing of toxic substances on animals, and all forms of animal research. People who raise animals for food in an industrial setting, or who do biomedical research on animals, are not driven by desires to hurt these creatures. Rather, they believe they are doing social good, providing cheap and plentiful food, or medical advances, and they are in fact traditionally so perceived socially.
This left utilitarianism (see Chapter 4) as the source of the only clearly articulated basis for a robust animal ethic in the history of philosophy before the 20th century. Profound and intellectually bold utilitarian thinkers included Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), who based candidacy for moral status on sentience, the ability to experience emotions and feel pleasure and pain. Bentham famously affirmed that: “The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes” (Bentham 1996). Since animals can feel pain and pleasure, according to Bentham, they belong within the scope of moral concern.
This approach was appropriated by Peter Singer (1946–) in his revolutionary book Animal Liberation (Singer 1975), the first contemporary attempt to ground full moral status for animals. Singer argues that species membership alone should not determine moral status, and is speciesism, a form of discrimination no different than racism or sexism (Singer 2009). Singer has argued, for utilitarian reasons, that the only way to ameliorate the suffering of farm animals raised in industrial animal factories is to stop eating meat and adopt a vegetarian, if not vegan, diet. A moment’s reflection reveals the implausibility of this suggestion. People will not give up meat even when counseled to do so by their physicians to improve their own health or even to save their own lives, so the chances that they will do so in the face of a philosophical argument are exceedingly small. In other words, not only must a successful animal ethic be logically consistent and persuasive, but it must also suggest real solutions that people can both advocate and adhere to.
The fundamental question for anyone attempting to extend all or part of our socio-ethical concerns to other creatures is this: are there any morally relevant differences between people and animals that compel us to withhold the full range of our moral machinery from animals? Answering this question occupied most of the thinkers who were trying to raise the moral status of animals. While most philosophers working on this question did not affirm that there is no moral difference between the lives of animals and the lives of humans, there was a consensus among them that the treatment of animals by humans needs to be weighed and measured by the same moral standards by which we judge the moral treatment of humans.
On the other hand, there are a considerable number of thinkers who have tried to deny a continuum of moral relevance across humans and animals and have presented arguments and criteria that support the concept of moral cleavage between the two. Many of these claims are theologically based. Most famous, perhaps, is the omnipresent Catholic view that humans have immortal souls and animals do not. Such claims include the ideas that humans are more powerful than animals, are superior to animals, are higher on the evolutionary scale than animals, have dominion over animals, are capable of reason and language while animals are not, even that humans feel pain while animals do not. These arguments draw a hard and fast line between humans, who have thoughts and feelings, and animals, who do not. The superior position of humans does not serve as adequate grounds for excluding animals from moral concern. One can argue that humans are obligated to behave morally toward other creatures precisely because of their superior power. Just as we expect fair and benevolent treatment at the hands of those capable of imposing their wills upon us, so ought we extend similar treatment to those vulnerable to us.
Of all the philosophical arguments to exclude animals from the moral arena, the most damaging are those going back to Rene Descartes (1596–1650) that deny thought, feeling, and emotion to animals. This view perpetrated the notion that animals were nothing more than machines, devoid of souls. This paradigm justified live vivisection of animals without anesthesia or pain management. It is common sense that we cannot have obligations to entities unless what we do to them, or allow to happen to them, matters to them. Therefore, we cannot have direct moral obligations to cars. If I destroy your friend’s car, I have not behaved in an immoral way toward the car but only toward its owner, to whom the condition of the car matters. For this reason, anyone advocating for higher moral status for animals cannot let claims about lack of sentience in animals go unchallenged and unrefuted.
In my experience, most people will acknowledge a continuum from animals through humans, as Charles Darwin (1809–1882) did. Most people will affirm that animals have thoughts, feelings, emotions, intentions, pain, sadness, joy, fear, and curiosity. Even more important to the inclusion of animals within the scope of moral concern is the point that most people share empathetic identification with animals, particularly regarding their pain and suffering. All forms of mattering to an animal are determined by what Aristotle referred to as its telos, or unique nature. Every living thing is constituted of a set of activities making it a living thing. How each living being actualizes these functions and fulfills these needs determines its telos. If we are to adopt telos as the basis for ethical obligations to animals, as our societal ethic has done for people, we can considerably broaden what is included in the scope of moral concern. For this reason, to enjoy moral status, an animal must have the kind of telos whose violation creates some negative mode of awareness. My contention is that animals have needs and desires flowing from their telos, which when thwarted, frustrated, or simply unmet, result in negative feelings and poor welfare. Consequently, entrance into the moral arena is determined by someone’s being alive and having interests and needs that can be helped or harmed by a being who can act morally.
Evidence of Social Change for Animals
The past 60 years have witnessed a dazzling array of social ethical revolutions in Western society. Such moral movements as feminism, civil rights, environmentalism, affirmative action, consumer advocacy, pro- and anti-abortion activism, homosexual rights, children’s rights, the student movement, and anti-war activism have forever changed the way governments and public institutions comport themselves. This is equally true for private enterprise: to be successful, businesses must be seen as operating solidly in harmony with changing and emerging social ethics. It is arguable that morally-based boycotting of South African business was instrumental in bringing about the end of apartheid, and similar boycotting of some farm products in the United States led to significant improvements in the treatment of farm workers. It is de rigueur for major corporations to have reasonable numbers of minorities visibly peopling their ranks, and for liquor companies to advertise on behalf of moderation in alcohol consumption. Cigarette companies now press upon the public a message that cigarettes kill and extol their involvement in protecting battered women; and forestry and oil companies spend millions (even billions) to persuade the public of their environmental commitments. Socially and environmentally responsible investment funds are ubiquitous, and reports of child labor or sweatshop working conditions can literally destroy product markets overnight.
Of importance to the veterinary profession, legal mandates that a veterinarian must be a member of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees that provide oversight for animal research, the proliferation of veterinary specialists (including those in animal welfare and behavior), and the public’s acknowledgment of companion animals as members of the family are testaments to the evolution of the moral status of animals.
Not only is success tied to accord with social ethics but, even more fundamentally, freedom and autonomy are as well. Every profession – be it medicine, law, or agriculture – is given freedom by the social ethic to pursue its aims. In return, society basically says to professions it does not understand well enough to regulate, “You regulate yourselves the way we would regulate you if we understood what you do, which we don’t. But we will know if you don’t self-regulate properly and then we will regulate you, despite our lack of understanding.” For example, Congress became concerned about excessive use of antibiotics in animal feeds to promote growth and prevent disease and concluded that veterinarians were a major source of the problem. In 2016, Food and Drug Administration officials removed all over-the-counter access to antimicrobials that are both used in human medicine and given to livestock in feed or water. Those drugs now can be given only with veterinarian approval for disease-related reasons (Burns 2019).
One major social ethical concern is an emphasis on the treatment of animals used by society for various purposes. It is easy to demonstrate the degree to which these concerns have seized the public imagination. Legislators acknowledge receiving more letters, phone calls, e-mails, and personal contacts on animal-related issues than on any other topic.
Whereas 40 years ago one would have found no bills pending in the US Congress relating to animal welfare, recent years have witnessed dozens of such bills annually, with even more proliferating at the state level. Federal bills have ranged from attempts to prevent duplication in animal research, to saving marine mammals from becoming victims of tuna fishermen, to preventing importation of ivory, to curtailing the parrot trade. State laws passed in large numbers have increasingly prevented the use of live or dead shelter animals for biomedical research and training, have abolished cage confinement of animals raised for food, and have focused on myriad other areas of animal welfare. Eight states have abolished the steel-jawed leghold trap, as have some 85 countries. When Colorado’s politically appointed Wildlife Commission failed to act on a recommendation from the Division of Wildlife to abolish the spring bear hunt (because hunters were liable to shoot lactating mothers, leaving their orphaned cubs to die of starvation), the public ended the hunt through a referendum (Willoughby 2013). Now, most people in western states oppose spring bear hunting (NSSF 2019).
Interest in the welfare of horses has led to US federal laws that includes measures to stop the widespread doping of racehorses and increase track safety, keep horse slaughter plants shuttered, and boost funding to stop the cruel soring of Tennessee walking horses (Block and Amundson 2020). Municipalities have passed ordinances ranging from the abolition of rodeos and circuses to the protection of prairie dogs.
Even more dramatic, perhaps, is the worldwide proliferation of laws to protect laboratory animals. In the United States, two major pieces of legislation, which I helped draft and defend before Congress, regulating and constraining the use and treatment of animals in research were passed by the US Congress in 1985, despite vigorous opposition from the powerful biomedical research and medical lobbies. This opposition included well-financed, highly visible advertisements and media promotions indicating that human health and medical progress would be harmed by implementation of such legislation. There was even a less than subtle film titled Will I Be All Right, Doctor? – the query coming from a sick child, the response coming from a pediatrician who affirmed, in essence, “You will be if ‘they’ leave us alone to do as we wish with animals.” With social concern for laboratory animals unmitigated by such threats, research animal protection laws moved easily through Congress and have been implemented at considerable cost to taxpayers. When I testified before Congress on behalf of this law in 1982, a literature search in the Library of Congress turned up no papers in the scientific literature on laboratory animal analgesia and only two on animal analgesia, one of which said, “there ought to be papers.” A Google Scholar search now finds over three million papers and book chapters on animal pain (see Chapter 19).
In 1986, the UK superseded its pioneering Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876 (the first national legislation to regulate animal experimentation) with new laws aimed at strengthening public confidence in the welfare of experimental animals (HMSO 1986). Many other countries have moved or are moving in a similar direction, even though some 90% of laboratory animals are rats and mice, not the most cuddly and lovable of animals. Research on great apes has been truncated across the world. In 2021, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution to phase out animal experiments (Block and Amundson 2021).
Many animal uses seen as frivolous by the public have been abolished without legislation. Toxicological testing of cosmetics on animals has been curtailed; companies such as The Body Shop have been wildly successful internationally by totally disavowing such testing; Orca performance exhibits at SeaWorld ended in 2016 in response to a documentary Blackfish, which highlighted their miserable conditions and confinement; and greyhound racing in the United States has declined, in part for animal welfare reasons. In 2017, Ringling Bros. ended circuses founded on exotic animal acts after 146 years, and zoos that were little more than prisons for animals (the state of the art during my youth) have all but disappeared, and the very existence of zoos is being increasingly challenged (Pierce and Bekoff 2018) despite the public’s unabashed love of seeing animals. And, as Gaskell and his associates’ work has revealed (1997), genetic engineering has been rejected in Europe not, as commonly believed, for reasons of risk but for reasons of ethics: in part for reasons of animal ethics. Similar reasons (i.e. fear of harming cattle) have, in part, driven European rejection of bovine somatotropin (BST).
Animals in Agriculture and Research
Inevitably, agriculture has felt the force of social concern with animal treatment – indeed, it is arguable that contemporary concern in society with the treatment of farm animals in modern production systems blazed the trail leading to a new ethic for animals. As early as 1965, British society took notice of what the public saw as an alarming tendency to industrialize animal agriculture by chartering a group of scientists under the leadership of Sir Rogers Brambell, the Brambell Commission, which affirmed that any agricultural system failing to meet the needs and natures of animals was morally unacceptable (Brambell 1965). Though the Brambell Commission recommendations enjoyed no regulatory status, they served as a moral lighthouse for European social thought. In 1988, the Swedish Parliament passed, virtually unopposed, what the New York Times called a “Bill of Rights” for farm animals, abolishing, in a series of timed steps, the confinement systems currently dominating North American agriculture (Lohr 1988). The European Union has moved in a similar direction, banning sow stalls (gestation crates) for pigs and battery cages for egg-laying hens in 2013, and the European Parliament recently voted to ban the use of cages in animal agriculture by 2027 (Kelly 2021).
Although the United States has been a latecomer to progress on agricultural issues, things have moved rapidly. My own work attests to this tendency. In 2007, over two days of dialogue, I convinced Smithfield Farms, the world’s largest pork producer, to phase out gestation crates. Most dramatically, I was able to broker an agreement between the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Colorado Livestock Association passing a jointly sponsored farm animal welfare law in Colorado in 2008, abolishing sow stalls and veal crates. In 2008, the Pew Commission, on which I served as the advocate for farm animal welfare, called for the end of high-confinement animal agriculture within 10 years, for reasons of animal welfare, environmental despoliation, human and animal health, and social justice. Citizen ballot initiatives pressed by the HSUS abolishing sow stalls, battery cages, and veal crates have passed in 12 states. Cage-free egg production is now proliferating across the United States.
Evolving societal values are the basis of this progress for animals. While 58% of US adults believe that “most farmed animals are treated well” (Anthis 2017), 77% of consumers noted they are concerned about the welfare of animals raised for food (ASPCA 2016). The agriculture community in the United States has been far behind societal concerns. There is one monumental conceptual error that is omnipresent in the agriculture industry’s discussions of animal welfare – an error of such magnitude that it trivializes the industry’s responses to ever-increasing societal concerns about the treatment of agricultural animals. When one discusses farm animal welfare with industry groups or with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), one finds the same response – animal welfare is solely a matter of “sound science.”
Those of us serving on the Pew Commission (2008) (better known as the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production), which studied intensive animal agriculture in the United States, encountered this response regularly during our communications with industry representatives. For example, one representative of the Pork Producers, testifying before the Commission, answered that while people in her industry were quite “nervous” about the Commission, their anxiety would be allayed were we to base all of our conclusions and recommendations on “sound science.” Hoping to rectify the error in that comment, as well as educate the numerous industry representatives present, I responded to her as follows: “Madam, if we on the Commission were asking the question of how to raise swine in confinement, science could certainly answer that question for us. But that is not the question the Commission, or society, is asking. What we are asking is, ought we to raise swine in confinement? And to this question, science is not relevant.”
Questions of animal welfare are at least partly “ought” questions: questions of ethical obligation.
The concept of animal welfare (see Chapter 2) is an ethical concept to which, once understood, science brings relevant data. When we ask about an animal’s welfare, we are asking about what we owe the animal, and to what extent. A document called the CAST Report, first published by US agricultural scientists in the 1980s, affirmed that the necessary and sufficient conditions for attributing positive welfare to an animal were represented by the animals’ productivity (Council for Agricultural Science and Technology 1981). A productive animal enjoyed positive welfare; a non-productive animal had poor welfare.
This notion was fraught with many difficulties. First, productivity is an economic notion predicated of a whole operation: welfare is predicated of individual animals. An operation such as caged laying hens may be quite profitable if the cages are severely overcrowded, yet the individual hens do not enjoy good welfare. Second, equating productivity and welfare is, to some significant extent, legitimate under husbandry conditions, where the producer does well if and only if the animals do well, and square pegs, as it were, are fitted into square holes with as little friction as possible (as when pigs live outside). Under industrial conditions, however, animals do not naturally fit in the niche or environment in which they are kept and are subjected to “technological sanders” that allow producers to force square pegs into round holes – antibiotics, feed additives, hormones, air-handling systems – so the animals do not die and produce more and more kilograms of meat or milk. Without these technologies, the animals could not be productive. We will return to the contrast between husbandry and industrial approaches to animal agriculture.
The key point here is that even if the CAST Report definition of animal welfare did not suffer from the difficulties outlined, it is still an ethical concept. It essentially says, “What we owe animals and to what extent is simply what it takes to get them to create profit.” This in turn would imply that the animals are well off if they have only food, water, and shelter, something the industry has sometimes asserted. Even in the 1980s, however, there were animal advocates and others who took a very different ethical stance on what we owe farm animals. Indeed, the famous Five Freedoms articulated in the UK by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) during the 1960s represents quite a different ethical view of what we owe animals, when it affirms that:
The welfare of an animal includes its physical and mental state, and we consider that good animal welfare implies both fitness and a sense of well-being. Any animal kept by man, must at least, be protected from unnecessary suffering. We believe that an animal’s welfare, whether on farm, in transit, at market or at a place of slaughter should be considered in terms of “five freedoms” (Animal Welfare Committee n.d.):
Freedom from Hunger and Thirst
– by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigor.
Freedom from Discomfort
– by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease
– by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
Freedom to Express Normal Behavior
– by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
Freedom from Fear and Distress
– by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.
Clearly, the two definitions contain very different notions of our moral obligation to animals. Which is correct, of course, cannot be decided by gathering facts or doing experiments – indeed which ethical framework one adopts will in fact determine the shape of science studying animal welfare. To clarify: suppose you hold the view that an animal is well off when it is productive, as per the CAST Report. The role of welfare science in this case will be to study what feed, bedding, temperature, etc. are most efficient at producing the most meat, milk, or eggs for the least money – much what animal and veterinary science does today. On the other hand, if you take the FAWC view of welfare, your efficiency will be constrained by the need to acknowledge the animal’s natural behavior and mental state, and to assure that there is minimal pain, fear, distress, and discomfort – not factors in the CAST view of welfare unless they have a negative impact on economic productivity. Thus, in a real sense, sound science does not determine your concept of welfare: rather, your concept of welfare determines what counts as sound science!
