Should Veterinarians Eat Meat?

When thinking of your veterinarian, you probably do not wonder about their diet. But, a veterinary organization in Britain has spoken out against those that treat but also eat animals. 

Source: Amazing Vegan Outreach/YouTube

Writer and veterinary nurse Leanne Dalton published an article through the British Veterinary Association. In it, she claimed that it is hypocritical for veterinarians to eat animals while simultaneously working hard to save their lives. Under the headline “Do we have a moral obligation to be vegan?” she expressed her concerns. Dalton argues, “that to truly fulfill the declaration to ‘above all ensure the health and welfare of animals, those working in the vet profession should adopt veganism.”

In her eyes, vets are expected to treat all patients equally. Additionally, that treatment should be extended to animals beyond those in veterinarians’ care. Dalton believes it is contradictory to perform life-saving actions for an animal and then eat animal products right after. 

Part of this belief comes from her work a Vets4Pets and all that emotion she has seen animals exhibit. She also quotes studies on farm animals in her article. She wrote,

“Studies in farm animals, decapods and cephalopods have shown that they are able to demonstrate a wide range of cognitive abilities equal to, and in some cases superior to, the small animals that many of us see in practice.”

Dalton asks an important question through her work. If vets are collectively against cruelty to animals, why are they inadvertently harming them through their diet?

In response to her article, Professor Victor Kumar, a moral philosopher at Boston University, thinks that telling people to be vegan will backfire. He thinks that Dalton should have asked people to cut down on their meat consumption instead.

While Mrs. Dalton brings up a good point, many veterinarians eat meat. A study among veterinary students in Sweden showed that 23 percent of year 1-2 students were vegetarian, which dropped to 11 percent. One would think that it would be obvious that a vet would not want to eat animals; in the same way, an environmentalist should be conscious of their meat consumption, considering factory farming is one of the largest contributors to Climate change.

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• Is the Ethical Argument to Go Vegan Enough?

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