Advancing Veterinary Ethics and Animal Welfare in Clinical Practice

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Ethics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 7

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Wellcome Trust Critical Care Laboratory for Large Animals, (LARIF), Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Roslin, Midlothian EH25 9RG, UK
Interests: anaesthesia and analgesia in laboratory pigs, sheep; cattle and poultry; veterinary ethics;

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Guest Editor
Taylor Monroe, Gravel Head Farm, Little Downham, Ely CB6 2TY, Cambridgeshire, UK
Interests: anaesthesia and analgesia in all veterinary species; veterinary ethics; saving the planet

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The last few decades have seen major developments in veterinary surgery and medicine that have greatly extended the treatment options available for companion animals and their owners. These innovations have been strongly promoted by some veterinarians, and widely accepted by both companion animal owners and the public as innovative and desirable. However, there are concerns that such activities may not always be conducted for the benefit of the animals involved. Indeed, there are circumstances in which the animal receives no benefit from innovative treatments, or worse, suffers badly because of them. Animal owners, and unwilling clinical participants in advanced veterinary treatment, may also suffer emotionally (and the former financially) having agreed to advanced treatment which fails to restore the animal’s health and welfare. From the veterinarian’s perspective, the inducements to performing innovative procedures are great while the penalties—even in the face of absolute failure—are small; it is the animal and its owner which inevitably suffer when advanced treatments fail. This fact makes the prospect of successful self-regulation unlikely.

In 2019 the World Veterinary Association (WVA) proposed a model veterinarian’s oath which states, “I, as a Member of the Global Veterinary Profession, do solemnly swear to use my scientific knowledge, skill and training: (inter alia) to prevent, diagnose, treat and manage pain and disease in all animal species to the best of my ability in keeping with the principles of veterinary ethics and relevant law” (Editors’ italics). Many of the countries represented by the WVA do not possess the required national legislation nor guidelines to professional conduct to ensure animal welfare, and even those that do may find themselves unable to prevent cruel innovations from being conducted and promoted by sensationalizing media. We believe the robust and independent ethical assessment of veterinary innovations to be the most efficient way to ensure the latter “do the sick no harm”.

This edition of Animals attempts to comprehensively explore this thesis by inviting experts from around the world to offer the following: i) evidence-based reviews; ii) reports of experimental studies; and iii) additional material that supports the role of ethical review in controlling clinical procedures that threaten animal welfare.

Prof. Eddie Clutton
Dr. Polly M. Taylor
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • veterinary ethics
  • overtreatment
  • animal welfare
  • ethical review
  • overdiagnosis

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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