Vetnews | Desember 2024 10 « BACK TO CONTENTS The final question enabled respondents to raise any other issues of concern to themselves as equine veterinary surgeons in this area. Some of the topics included among the 36 (37%) responses, already feature elsewhere in the results such as specific procedures and conflicts of interest, ‘Managing the welfare of the horse in competition animals is challenging as multiple interested parties are present and the horse’s voice is the vet and the pressure on them is immense’. Comments that may not be well represented elsewhere were grouped into those relating to the veterinary profession and those relating to competition. Comments relating to the veterinary profession included: ‘Essential to have/continue to have a very strong and effective regulatory authority to prevent vets acting in an unethical manner’, ‘dishonesty of vets in carrying out treatment that may be prohibited/unethical because they don’t want to lose a client. We need to have a backbone, stick together and work for the horse’s best interests, ‘a lack of accountability by the veterinary profession for the impact on the legacy of the sport, i.e., their behaviour is too short-termist’, ‘The equine veterinary profession is experiencing difficulty attracting and retaining young veterinarians due to the ethical issues stated above and the dysfunctional business model in which the trainer directs the veterinarian and has the power to fire the vet if he or she does not acquiesce’ and finally ‘being grossly/obscenely underpaid’. A few respondents (n = 5) commented that when multiple veterinary surgeons were involved in the care of a horse issues can arise; that international ESMVS were entering and working in the UK despite not having RCVS registration, and that sports medicine veterinary surgeons might be a limited-service provider and might not contribute to outof-hours/ emergency cover or communicate well with the primary veterinary practice, leading to ‘lack of transparency, traceability of records and lack of responsibility’ by some sports medicine veterinary surgeons. Further comments, not mentioned elsewhere, relating to competition/ sport include: ‘there needs to be a way for judges to disqualify overtly lame horses from the competition and there needs to be precedent set to make this ok’; ‘there need to be improved drugs testing outside of the racing industry’; ‘the failure of the [named governing body] to act sensibly in identifying real horse welfare issues rather than perceived’; ‘in need of more official and veterinary personnel during competitions’, and ‘the idea of “clean sport” is an ideal but a million miles away from human athletes who can be dope tested at any point in training or competition’. 4 | DISCUSSION Among a wide range of ethical concerns identified, these results confirm that veterinary surgeons have a strong sense of responsibility to the horse, which aligns with the RCVS Code of Professional Conduct that ‘Veterinary surgeons must make animal health and welfare their first consideration’. However, it is clear that ESMVS regularly face conflicts in their role that make it difficult to meet the goal of putting equine health and welfare first, revealing a complex environment with multiple loyalties, competing demands and subsequent obligations. We define competing obligations as occurring when the satisfaction of one obligation entails the sacrifice of another. These competing demands or obligations include meeting the welfare needs of the horse, the competition demands of the owner and/or trainer and the ESMVS’s own personal business interests, as well as the professional expectations set out by the governing bodies. Competing obligations also arise as a key issue for sports medicine doctors who face similar pressures to return an athlete to sport more quickly than is medically indicated, creating tension between the longterm welfare of the player/patient and the demands of the coach, the player or fans.3 In human sports medicine, the athlete may also be vulnerable because of their age, their sense of obligation to their team or coach, and/or their desire to retain a contract and this may render them compliant with training regimes and treatments that may not Note: Table shows percentage responses. The signed-rank test compared the two time periods. (Number of respondents n = 93 RCVS, n = 91 BHA/FEI, n = 80 HPA.) TABLE 1 Equine veterinary surgeons’ perceived clarity of regulation during the competition period compared with the between-competition period. During competitions/races, the duties and obligations of veterinary surgeons are well-defined by the regulatory body. Between competitions/races, the duties and obligations of veterinary surgeons are well-defined by the regulatory body. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree p-Value RCVS 15.2 33.7 32.6 14.1 4.3 16.7 36.7 32.2 11.1 3.3 0.14 BHA 33.0 38.5 23.1 3.3 2.2 18.0 36.0 32.6 10.1 3.4 <0.001 FEI 30.8 47.3 16.5 3.3 2.2 16.3 39.1 32.6 8.7 3.3 <0.001 HPA 12.5 20.0 58.8 5.0 3.8 7.4 14.8 63.0 11.1 3.7 0.05 Graphs showing the significant difference in perceived clarity of regulation during the competition period compared with the between competition period for (A) British Horseracing Authority (p < 0.001) and (B) Federation Equestre Internationale (p < 0.001).
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