I attended the British Veterinary Nursing
Association (BVNA) Congress, at Telford over the w/e, at which there was an
Equine Specific stream on Sunday. What a
fantastic venue and programme with 5 separate streams and a workshop running
concurrently; in total there were approximately 1200 delegates over the 3 days
and a commercial exhibition similar in size to our own. The Congress Dinner on Saturday night was
fancy dress (Heroes & Heroines), where I was The Lone Ranger…please God,
don’t let there be any photos!
The ball finished at 1am and I was in the
saddle doing a 100km Cyclo-sportive (The Tour of Worcester) with my son, Tom at
eight the following morning – as you can imagine it was a long day…but it could
always have been worse. I could never
give up alcohol; waking up every morning, thinking that’s the best I’m going to
feel all day!
I attended a meeting at BBC Broadcasting
House in Bristol on Tuesday as a member of the Rural Affairs Committee (RAC).
The Committee is a group of approximately 20 people with very diverse roles and
involvement in the rural community & economy including a Dairy Farmer, a
Sheep Farmer, an Organic Farmer, CEO of the Yorkshire Dales National Park
Authority, a Doctor of Bioscience Research, a Public Health Nutritionist, a
Habitat Conservationist, a Rural Priest etc..
The Committee Chair is Christine Tacon CBE, the Groceries Code
Adjudicator, http://www.christinetacon.com/. (I wonder if I’ll ever be important enough to
have my own website? - I bet Ben & Keith do.)
Also present in the room for these meetings
are up to 20 programme researchers, producers and editors of well-known BBC
programmes such as Countryfile, The Food Programme, Farming Today and On Your
Farm. Occasionally some of the programme
presenters also attend such as Tom Heap (http://www.tomheap.com/)
from Countryfile who joined us earlier this year. Each Committee member is allowed 5 – 8
minutes to give an overview of a handful of important topical issues, relevant
to one’s sphere, which the individual considers to be newsworthy or may appear
on the BBC’s radar over the next few weeks and months. I introduced the issue of Non-Stun Slaughter
at my first BBC RAC meeting 12 months ago and have lobbied about it at every meeting
subsequently. The extent of the practice
of Non-Stun Slaughter first came to my attention about 3 years ago, at my first
BVA Council meeting. Although not
relevant to horses, I feel passionately against what I consider to be an inhumane
practice and as veterinary surgeons, I see our role is as guardians of the
welfare of all animals. As you will have noted the lobby against Non-Stun
Slaughter has gathered considerable momentum over the last few months and the British
Veterinary Association (BVA) have an e-petition, which has already achieved
approximately 75,000 signatories calling for a ban. If we can achieve 100,000 signatures it will automatically
trigger a House of Commons debate on the issue. So if you haven’t signed up and would like to,
please can you do so via the link below – www.bit.ly/stunB4slaughter.
On Wednesday I drove up to South Milford,
east of Leeds for the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) Animal Rescue
Forum meeting, hosted by the West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service (FRS). This is one of the 3 gatherings a year that
the group holds to discuss new procedures, equipment and techniques.
One point on the agenda is always, “BEVA
Items”, where, amongst other things, I gave a resume of the recent BEVA Injury
Survey - http://www.beva.org.uk/news-and-events/news/view/641.
Inevitably, the high incidence of injury amongst
horse-vets caused much discussion amongst the group, who as members of a large
corporate (& spend a lot of time sitting on their corporate…) are astounded
about the risks, which we expose ourselves to on a daily basis. Furthermore, there was also criticism of some
vets who attend animal rescues without appropriate personal protective
equipment (PPE) and who are reluctant to don the hard-hats, which the FRS
provide on scene. Furthermore, the
question was asked, why we don’t use more PPE on a daily basis. Would the use of hard hats and steel toe-caps
reduce the number of injuries to horse vets; food for thought…
This is one of the many questions that BEVA
Policy Committee is due to discuss at our next meeting in a couple of weeks.
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