ICY snow-melt instantly flooded my running shoe as it sank deep within the treacherous bed of sphagnum moss with a sickening “squelch”. Teetering precariously on the downward-sloping slab of rock, I ignored the cold, intent on resisting the seductive pull of gravity.
Beneath the slick, wet surface, the glacial melt waters tumbled by with an endless, powerful roar, before plunging sharply out of sight through shadowed corridors to destinations unknown.
Descending 100 feet from the safety of the forest trail down steep, rocky scree, to the very base of the canyon, had seemed like a great idea at the time. The photo, I was sure, would be worth the climb. My confidence, however, was fading fast. The photo was indeed stunning, but if my foot didn’t stop sliding soon, it might well be my last.
“This has to be worth some serious CPD points,” flashed inanely through my mind…
Humane teaching methods
I was ostensibly on my way to deliver three presentations at the 29th World Veterinary Congress in Vancouver in July when I recklessly strayed from the beaten path. My main presentation was to be on humane teaching methods within veterinary education.
Whilst a West Australian veterinary student from 1997 to 2001, I had been forced to wage a long and arduous struggle for humane teaching methods. This should never have been necessary, given that safeguarding animal welfare is theoretically fundamental to the profession. If humane alternatives exist, they should be used. And exist they do – in abundance!
In surgical courses, students ideally practise basic skills such as suturing and instrument handling, using knottying boards, plastic organs, and similar models. They then progress to simulated surgery on “ethicallysourced cadavers”, obtained primarily from animals euthanased for medical reasons. Finally, students observe, assist with, and then perform necessary surgery under close supervision on real patients that actually benefit from the surgery – similar to the training of physicians. In animal shelter sterilisation programmes, for example, homeless animals are neutered by students under supervision, and returned for adoption.
Preclinical disciplines such as physiology, biochemistry and anatomy may be taught using computer simulations, high-quality videos, ethically-sourced cadavers, preserved specimens, models and non-invasive self-experimentation.
Of 11 published studies of veterinary students comparing learning outcomes generated by nonharmful teaching methods with those achieved by harmful animal use, nine assessed surgical training – historically the discipline involving greatest harmful animal use.
Five of the 11 (45.5%) demonstrated superior learning outcomes using humane alternatives. Another 45.5% demonstrated equivalent learning outcomes, and only one study demonstrated inferior learning outcomes. Considerable time and cost savings were also evident.
Improving animal welfare standards
Oddly, however, many veterinary academics remain opposed to the introduction of humane teaching methods, which brings me to the topic of my remaining congress presentations: the need for improved animal welfare standards of veterinarians.
Although the public justifiably expects veterinarians to demonstrate leadership on animal welfare issues, disturbing surveys have demonstrated that the positions of veterinary associations sometimes lag behind the general public.
Potential solutions include the consideration of animal welfare awareness and critical reasoning ability during veterinary student selection; inclusion of animal welfare, bioethics and critical reasoning training during veterinary undergraduate and continuing education; and the replacement of remaining harmful animal use in veterinary curricula with humane alternatives.
The responses to my presentations were heartening. Several speakers – including representatives of leading veterinary associations – acknowledged that proactive steps were necessary to restore the leadership and public credibility of the profession on animal welfare issues. Whether such rhetoric will translate into concrete action, however, remains to be seen.
One world, one health
The main theme of the congress was “One World, One Health”. With zoonoses now comprising 60% of all human pathogens and 75% of emerging diseases, and their international spread increasingly facilitated by the intensification of animal agriculture, increased global trade and air travel, interspecies and national barriers to disease are increasingly porous.
Solutions will require increased co-operation between human and veterinary medicine, and national governments, and will require increased biosecurity, disease surveillance, rapid responses to outbreaks, and appropriate vaccination protocols.
In search of adventure
Admittedly, however, the congress theme that inspired me most, was, “Come for the conference; stay for the adventure!” As a conscientious veterinarian, I took these instructions to heart. With only the vaguest idea of where I was going, I edged my hire-car out of Calgary airport on the “wrong” side of the road. Two hours later I was revelling in a majestic world of cloudwreathed peaks and deep pine forests, deep within the Canadian Rockies.
I struggled to make distance on the world-famous Icefields Parkway between Banff and Jasper as jawdropping vistas brought me to a screeching halt at nearly every turn. Alpine mirror-lakes reflected snowy peaks dripping with glaciers that sparkled in the sunshine.
I embarked on two 20km hikes, ears flapping anxiously for the first sound of grizzly bears, given that I was not travelling in a “tightly-packed group of 10, making lots of noise and carrying bear spray” as warning signs urgently advised.
Apart from a single black bear cub, the bears were mysteriously absent. Possibly my unwashed running shoes were superior to spray. No matter. The marmots, pikas and butterflies revealed frolicking in alpine meadows after trekking across snow, ice and scree, around hidden lakes, beneath steep, jagged peaks, from which glittering waterfalls tumbled, more than convinced me I was in one of the world’s most breathtakingly beautiful places.
Threatened wilderness
The degradation of such pristine wilderness due to global warming – as evidenced by alarmingly receding glaciers – must prompt some serious soul-searching by veterinarians and others.
Our profession is intimately involved in the maintenance of intensive animal agricultural systems which are known to contribute substantially to water and environmental contamination, not to mention bacterial antibiotic resistance.
According to a 2007 United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, animal agriculture currently contributes 18% of all greenhouse gases – more than the entire transport sector combined!
Tinkering at the edges by marginally increasing production efficiency, as sought by some researchers, is hardly likely to avert the environmental disaster toward which we appear to be rapidly heading. A considerably more honest assessment of the true costs and benefits of intensive animal production is clearly required if we wish to continue to have the option of risking our lives in places of breathtaking, glacial beauty, in the company of amazing alpine creatures, whilst ostensibly in pursuit of our CPD.
