Ethical Issues in Vet Science

[fargeese]

I am currently reading up on current vet issues for my upcoming interview, and was wondering what all of you consider the most important (especially ethical) issues in the profession today. I have some ideas but hoped that ya'll could help me come up with some others to study (and hopefully have a nice formulated answer to) come interview time.

I thought of:
Kill vs. no kill shelters
prolonging of life; owner's wishes vs. welfare of pet
shortage of vet students going into large animal or public service

Please add to this list! I need to do something productive besides contemplate what I will do if I don't get in 🙂

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[Boxsterluv]

-Convenience euthanasia (animal can be treated/isn't sick, but owner doesn't want to pay for treatment or just wants to get rid of animal)
-Whether or not to tell the client about a mistake you made that they'd otherwise never know about
-What to do if a client brings in an animal that was treated by another vet but the other vet clearly didn't provide care that was up to standard (tell client that other vet messed up, don't say anything to client but call the other vet, ???)
-Use of growth hormone in cows to increase milk production

That's what I could think of off the top of my head, hope it helps!

 

[kuodachrome]

Hello,

I highly recommend looking at website like the AVMA or your state VMA.

Here are some links to AVMA stuff that I found helpful last year:

http://www.avma.org/issues/policy/positions.asp
http://www.avma.org/issues/default.asp

As far as the interview, I would just keep an open mind about these issues and know there is no "right" answer. Explore both sides of the issue and you'll do fine. They're just trying to make sure that 1) you hopefully have some idea of important issues and 2) you can think logically.


Other interview tips: ask professors, vets, authority figures, etc to do practice interviews with you. I was pretty shocked how similar some of the questions I got asked in practice were to the real deal.

Good luck!

 

[eaglemeag]

The status/usage of animals in research situations is a good one to be familiar with. This includes procurement of cadavers for anatomy labs, especially if you're interviewing at Tufts 😀

Also, be familiar with all the different "subfields" of vet med and the issues that go along with each one. Shelter, large / food animal, wildlife, etc. Someone else mentioned public health; that's definitely a biggie as well.

I agree with what someone else said about understanding that these issues have no right/wrong answer... the interviewers want to get a sense of your personal ethics and hear the thought process behind your hypothetical decision. Think your answers out before speaking, and try not to contradict yourself (and I say that 100% from experience 😛 ).

 

[TurboVet]

One of my old bosses (a research vet) told me to up on slaughterhouse condition issues and animal welfare in that respect. Check JAVMA for what have been hot issues. Also a good idea, she said, to be up on anything related you might have mentioned in an essay- if you worked in farm, or research, etc., but familiar with issues pertaining to what you want to go into. Another vet friend said to always take the moral high road- but she was asked about co-workers stealing pens and would you report it stuff, so you might need to consult your gut for other questions.

 

[k9 <3er]

In one of my interviews, they asked me what I thought about banning specific breeds and how we can address this problem and using live animals as models in the classroom. Hope that helps!