Animal welfare in the veterinary curriculum

摘要

There is increasing global societal interest in how animals are used by humans. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has recently highlighted the importance of veterinarians' role as leading advocates of animal welfare (34,35). Indeed, veterinarians are arguably the professionals in the best position to evaluate and to defend the welfare of individual animals and of groups of animals. However, while a few fulfil this leadership role, the profession as a whole falls short of it. To determinewhy this is so and how the situation may be corrected, careful introspection is needed on the part of the veterinary community. This paper poses key questions and provides some answers, including recommendations to the veterinary profession to help improve the situation.