From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2000--

Veterinary Ethics: An Introduction
Edited by Giles Legood
Contiuum (370 Lexington Ave., New York, NY 10017), 2000.
192 pages, paperback. $23.95.

"The Reverend Giles Legood," editor of Veterinary Ethics, "is
Chaplain and Honorary Lecturer in Veterinary Ethics at the Royal Veterinary
College, University of London," the back cover warns--an example of why
one should not judge a book by the cover, because Veterinary Ethics is
neither a sermon nor mere academic philosophizing.
The worst one might fairly say of Legood and his contributing
authors is that they are not as entertaining as Bernard Rollin, whose
lectures at Colorado State University and elsewhere over the past 20 years
have virtually created the field of veterinary ethics.
But there is only one Bernard Rollin, and he has not yet written a
textbook to guide either vets already in practice or soon-to-be through the
clashing rocks of professional obligation versus public expectation.
Prevailing attitudes toward animals have probably changed more in
the past 15 years than in the previous 1,500, to the shock of some vets
who--like former Albuquerque Animal Services veterinarian Jan Thompson in
mid-June 2000--suddenly find themselves out of work and denounced in
headlines for doing the job they were taught.
Barely into middle age, Thompson when interviewed by ANIMAL PEOPLE
sounded a bit like Rip Van Winkle. She seemed to have no clear idea why
the public was appalled that she used a catch-pole to hold feral cats while
she killed them.
Like small animal vets who still bob dogs' tails and crop their
ears, or agricultural vets who starve hens to induce forced molts,
Thompson might have benefited from a few Bernard Rollin lectures, but
reading Veterinary Ethics could substitute in absence of the opportunity.
Lagood and 14 contributing authors first review the evolving status
of animals in human culture, then review the evolving status of vets, and
finally summarize major issues of which vets should be aware.
Most significantly, they point out, veterinary medicine has moved
beyond the practice of technical specialties. A veterinarian today is
expected to be not only proficient in animal medicine, but also capable of
acting as an informed moral arbiter. Some vets may spend most of their
working time in barns or laboratories, but the majority now interact
extensively with an increasingly well-informed and critical public.
To build a thriving practice and stay out of trouble, vets must
maintain--or develop--the social skills and cultural awareness of
ministers, family counselors, and good general practice physicians.
The public today wants all vets to be the fictional James Herriot,
or Dr. Dolittle, whose views are now almost as in step with the times as
they seemed outlandish as recently as the mid-1960s. But even Herriot or
Dolittle, if practicing today, would find in Veterinary Ethics some
things to think about, before an ethically challenging case arrives.
--M.C.