Here we have some animal welfare case studies for you to work through. We want to give you an insight into the real-life ethical dilemmas and emergency situations that you might be faced with as a vet. They might be a little challenging at first but hopefully with each case you’ll come to grips with the kind of thought process that is required to deal with these scenarios – don’t feel overwhelmed if you get completely stuck!

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Take your time and know that every day experienced vets do struggle with these too; it’s no walk in the park!

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These cases will test your ability to consider who the stakeholders* are and to prioritize what you think is most important. Essentially, there is no right or wrong answer – when it comes to ethics everyone has their own opinion, but as a vet it is important to always do your best by the animal and not to cause harm. Demonstrating an understanding of welfare cases like these and the thought processes that go into creating an effective plan of action would be super impressive during an interview! 

     *Stakeholders are individuals or groups who are involved in the situation/dilemma at hand. They can be the patient, client, vet, business, organization, public, society, etc. Stakeholders have different needs and thus will be affected by a decision differently.

 

Good luck and have fun! :)