Rolfe/BSM/Yuri et al,
My local veterinary surgery is going to hold an open day at the end of this month. Alas, the practice is now run by a real moronic woo-woo (Ilse Pedler), with whom I have crossed swords at a previous open day.
The open day is described
here and I note that the woo-woo is going to include an animal chiropractor and an animal Reiki practitioner. I seem to recall that it is illegal in the UK to medically treat animals unless fully qualified as a veterinary surgeon.
My question: would the woo-woo "therapies" above be regarded as attempts to medically treat animals (and thus illegal) ?
These therapies are certainly attempts to treat animals for profit (and it's the 'for profit' bit that the veterinary surgeons act is concerned with) but all such practitioners are aware of the relevant legislation and will only do their work with the endorsement of the animal's vet.
It's a sort of referral and can consist of anything from a full blown clinical report that is requested from the vet to a quick phone call or a tick box saying there is no reason the animal should
not receive the treatment or even just the owner asking the vet informally if it's ok for them to take their pet for treatment.
It's not just CAM practitioners this affects but also more mainstram 'para-veterinary' practitioners such as pet physiotherapists and hydrotherapists as well. There are also a few para-professionals who are exempted from the act such as cattle foot trimmers, horse dentists and, of course, farriers (the modern veterinary profession developed from farriery - we're the young upstarts as far as the blacksmiths are concerned!).
In practice it's likely that many CAVM practitioners actually do treat animals for profit without a veterinary referral (where I live there is a 'healer' of some sort on every corner) and to be realistic it's highly unlikely the law or the veterinary bodies would do anything about it unless there was evidence that animal welfare was at issue.
Interestingly one of the main groups lobbying to prevent lay persons practicing CAVM is the British Association of Veterinary Homeopaths. Obviously this is purely out of concern by this august body for animal welfare and nothing to do with anything sordid like protecting their turf.
If you wanted to ask anything I'd be wondering why the surgeon on their "
look at how wonderful our super-sterile surgical facilities are" page isn't wearing a long sleeved sterile gown tucked into his/her gloves as one might expect! Great hairy arms delving around your insides aren't conducive to an infection-free, uncomplicated recovery, especially given the surgeon in shot is just about to enter an abdomen.
If you google "David Ramey veterinary acupuncture" you will find that he is a vet who has done extensive research on the history and development of acupuncture in humans and animals (the late Robert Imrie was also an extremely learned veterinary acupuncture sceptic). You will also find that, according to David, there is actually no such thing as 'traditional' veterinary acupuncture, so-called ancient acupuncture charts of points in horses are actually concerned with constipation, colic and flatulence rather than needle placement, an ancient drawing supposedly of a Chinese general administering acupuncture to his trusty steed is actually him pulling an arrow out of its chest following a battle and that in fact the ancient Chinese has very low regard for animals and would have been most unlikely to have performed acupuncture in such base and unspiritual creatures.
That might give you a bit of ammo but the legal aspect is likely to be a bit of a blind alley.
Yuri
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