Are you running any particular initiatives or campaigns at the moment?
Together with the AVA, we are actively involved in the ‘Love is Blind’ campaign in partnership with the RSPCA. We’re raising public awareness about the animal welfare problems caused by exaggerated physical features such as brachycephaly, short limbs and excessive skin wrinkling. We are calling for everyone including vets, breeders and owners to work together to address these issues.
Why did you join the WSAVA and how does membership help your members?
We joined the WSAVA in 1979 and were its 17th member. One of our core values is ‘community’ and, as such, ASAV is proud to be part of the global small animal veterinary community that is the WSAVA. Our membership supports WSAVA projects that lift standards of veterinary care for companion animals around the world, such as:
- Providing subsidised continuing education to associations with a developing small animal veterinary profession (which we assist directly through our sponsorship of CE in Vietnam).
- Developing guidelines for standards of care including dentistry, vaccination and pain management, to name a few.
- Providing input on important global issues such as access to medications (eg the recent lobbying around the proposed rescheduling of ketamine).
Our members benefit from WSAVA membership directly through gaining access to member registration rates for the annual WSAVA Congress, access to recordings of presentations from previous Congresses and complimentary or discounted access to resources such as Clinician’s Brief, Journal of Small Animal Practice (JSAP) and Vetstream. While these tangible benefits are important and valued, it is the intangible benefit of belonging to our global association, of being part of something bigger than ourselves, which is most important.