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Comments on the dilemma in the February issue: ‘Vaccinations and the Animal Welfare Act’
Author(s) -
Tesh Jonathan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
in practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.211
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 2042-7689
pISSN - 0263-841X
DOI - 10.1136/inp.f1241
Subject(s) - vaccination , dilemma , animal welfare , medicine , welfare , legislation , veterinary medicine , family medicine , political science , law , virology , biology , ecology , philosophy , epistemology
The dilemma in the February issue concerned frustration at a shelter's resistance to vaccinating all its cats against feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) because of the expense, despite the duty of care that the Animal Welfare Act 2006 imposes on cat owners ( In Practice , February 2013, volume 35, pages 102‐103). Martin Whiting commented that while all vets should be providing evidence‐based veterinary medicine for the animals under their care, which included the proper use of vaccines, neither the Animal Welfare Act 2006 nor Defra's Code of Practice covering cats stated that vaccination was mandatory. The legislation was written in an open‐ended and non‐prescriptive manner and how it was interpreted would depend on the specific circumstances. With that in mind, he suggested redirecting your efforts. Rather than only pressing the shelter staff to vaccinate cats, advice could be provided on other ways of avoiding disease transmission within the shelter and, once the cats were adopted, the new owners could be advised on vaccination.