UPDATE ON FREE CONSULTATIONS FOR WILD ANIMALS

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http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-hedgehogs-being-killed-by-strimmers-and-lawnmowers

[BWR]

Further to our previous discussions (http://www.hedgehoghelp.co.uk/index.php/topic,932.0.html) I have just recieved a letter forwarded to me via my local MP, from the Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food and Animal Welfare.

Extracts from the the letter are written as follows :

" The Veterinary Surgeons Act (1966) establishes the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) as the regulator of the veterinary profession. Neither the Act nor the RCVS Guide to Professional Conduct requires veterinary surgeons to provide services, including the consultations free of charge, when dealing with wild animals. It would be inappropriate for the government to intervene in the business practices of private veterinary clinics by imposing an obligation on veterinary surgeons to provide free services. This is a matter for the regulator. "

________________________________________________________

All comments on the latest development regarding free veterinary consultations for wild animals are welcome, together with any ideas you have!

John.

[Marg]

Well,how very compassionate is that?    NOT 

And i thought vets were in practice to help save animals from suffering.!!

Obviously doesn't apply to wild ones then who have no one but the sort of people on here and other caring individuals to help them .

What a pompous attitude 

[vikki]

There is not a clause somewhere that says they have to treat protected species for free?

If not there should be!

I am beginning to wonder exactly what benefits "Protected status" buys an animal.

I could not find a vet in a 100 mile radius to treat my patients for free.

I can't see this changing either unless the government intervene, what gets me is some vets will treat pets for free or on a donation basis for those on a low income but regardless of income if it is a wild animal bills have to be paid!

[nicola123]

I think the same, now that they are on the list, just what has that done for them ?!  Thank goodness though there are people that will look after them, otherwise who knows what the population would be

[Alison]

<cynicism>Funny how the Govt. are happy to intervene in every aspect of human health but not when it comes to protected mammals!</cynicism>
I think that we should lobby the RCVS and demand (nicely) that all wildlife on the endangered species list should be treated for free, or at the very least that there should be no consultation fee.

[BWR]

Great! I'm glad we're all agreed, then! 

Next course of action : to lobby the RCVS for our 'campaign'

.......DEFRA basically told us to do so anyway! ("This is a matter for the regulator. ")

I'll make some template letters that all have the same content, and carry the same message!
Then I'll post them on here. All people will have to do is change their details (such as address,tel.no. etc) and/or add their own message with the letter.

I'll get started!

If anyone owns their own website, then let me know! I'll make some webpage banners detailing the 'campaign' so we can get a bit more exposure. The more websites the better, as more people will be become aware of this and hopefully join in too!

John.

[BWR]

OK. I've setup a specific section on my website for this campaign, so everyone knows where to go for information, updates and resources (page banners.etc)

Visit www.blythwildliferescue.co.uk/campaign1

John.

[BWR]

Heres one of the banners that people can use to link to the campaign page (makeitfree.blythwildliferescue.co.uk)

Just let me know what you all think, really (any suggestions.etc!)

LINK : http://blythwildliferescue.co.uk/test.html

[Sarah_and_Mart]

I received the campaign email this morning.  Surely it is the Government that needs to foot the bill, not vets, after all vets are businesses and they have bills, staff, and expenses to pay.  In my opinion for us to demand that vets should pay for all the consultations and treatment is wrong.  Neither is it right that you and I foot the bill on an individual basis.

Perhaps the government could set up a scheme (a bit like nhs dentistry) where you fill in the form for treatment, and the practice sends the form to the government to claim the money back.  Or include it as a tax as part of their environmental taxes, or similar.

[Derek]

For the majority of wildlife treatment it only costs the vet a few pennies, possibly a little bit of time  and in the case of any major or continuing treatment needing doing, then it is right & proper that a carer or a person who has taken on responsibility for the animal should discuss & agree a course of treatment & costings

In my view initial treatment & consultation should be free

Many vets realize that it is good practice to treat wildlife for free, within certain sensible limitations as that brings the "customer" back to them with their own animals  and they make the good profits that way

[BWR]

I've tried going down that route when we contacted DEFRA about the campaign (see the letter extract on http://makeitfree.blythwildliferescue.co.uk)

They commented that it was not right for them to intervene with the practice of Vets and tell them what they should and should not charge, and said that it was a matter for the regulator (being the RCVS)

I think it may be something that the RCVS may want to consideras one of their options when they recieve the petition. There are many routes that can be taken to see a change happen; it is a case of us working together with the RCVS to try and find a solution.

P.s - .........Thats a great point you meade their, Derek!

[Alison]

Hi John,

Well done, good work.

I will of course be signing the petition and I will write to the RCVS as well (honestly, I will, though I haven't done my strimmer letters yet I just haven't had the time. I think I'm going to have to take a day off to do all this stuff!).

Just one thing - I can't see anywhere anything that says what the actual wording of the petition is? Normally (though I will make an exception in this case) I wouldn't sign any petition that I haven't actually read and I know a number of my friends won't either, it'd be helpful to put the full wording up so people can see what they're signing.
(Alternatively I might just be suffering from Monday-morning-dimwitedness in which case apologies)

Alison

[Sarah_and_Mart]

all very well if individuals decide to assume responsibility to care for a wild animal and burden the cost themselves; but what percentage of people who come across an injured or sick wild animal will do that.  how many people are put off doing that because of the cost even though we would give up our time for nothing.

besides, aren't 'we as a nation', responsible for the environment that we live in; and Defra is a means through which this is achieved.  And 'environment' should mean everything, the air, water, land, plants, wildlife, et al.

the response from Defra about not 'intervening' with vet practices sounds like rubbish; it wouldn't be 'intervening' at all - instead of the vet billing the customer for wild animal treatment they bill Defra instead. How is that intervening.
I imagine many vets would gladly treat wild animals if they had the financial recompense for doing so.  Nothing new about government trying to pass the buck/cost onto someone else (ie RCVS and then us) and I believe that is where the real issue lies.  The day that government will actually take responsibility for and DO something instead of trying to divert the issue or introduce a wishy-washy half measure it will be a miracle.

[rtypus]

We have signed the petition, but one worry is that if vets are forced to treat wild animals for free (with no compensation from the government) that a lot of wild animals who are treatable at a cost will merely be put to sleep!

One of our local vets basically wouldn't treat any of our hedgehogs unless we wanted them put to sleep - imagine what their reaction would be if they have to foot the bill for the treatment!

Elaine & Richard

[BWR]

Yeah, I'm recognising everyone's concerns. I think it will just be a case of discussing the options with the RCVS when the time is right, and hopefully with their help, we may be able to get DEFRA to reconsider different ways in which we can make changes.

Thanks for all your comments,

John.

[Alison]

I can't get the 'send a postcard' thing to work; it keeps coming up with 'error on page' when I load up the select-a-postcard bit and the 'preview' just shows a black rectangle. Not sure if this is my PC or a more general prob. ?

[BWR]

I'll look into it, Alison. I've only just seen your message now!

[BWR]

Nearly a whole year has passed since we all started heated discussion about being charged consultation fees by Vets for wild animals; how time flies!

Today, the petition saw the 300th person sign their name.
Thanks to everyone who has already signed their name in support of OUR campaign.

The petition itself was started 8 months ago, and it is still possible to sign your name to the petition today, calling for veterinary consultations to be made FREE for wild animals in the UK.

You can read more about it by visiting http://makeitfree.blythwildliferescue.co.uk

Of course, any comments or discussion can be posted in this thread (UPDATE ON FREE CONSULTATIONS FOR WILD ANIMALS)

To sign the petition, visit http://makeitfree.blythwildliferescue.co.uk/sign_petition.php

Initially, we were planning to close the petition after 6 months, but I think it would be better to call it a day (or a year!) in March, seeing as we've had a good 12 months to get the message 'out there'.
So, there you go; a deadline for you all (and me) to work towards!

There are still a few areas which I would like to try and get some 'exposure' for the petition, so hopefully these will get us more signatures to send to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

As always, any ideas you may have are always welcome.

Remember, the more signatures we get, the better the chance we have of being successful!

[SoftTouch]

Hope you have plenty of bandwidth. I just posted all this on Facebook.

[Alison]

I've asked Animal Aid if I can hand out flyers for your petition and Derek's one at the xmas fayre thing on Sunday and they've said that'd be fine so I'll try to knock up a small handout that gives the details of both, is it OK if I cut and paste bits of text from the petition web page/stuff on here?

I don't think it'd be practical for me to take the actual petitions but happy to try to drum up some interest.

Alison

[BWR]

Yeah, sure. Thats fine; Thanks!! 

[Alison]

Here is the flyer I've knocked up, if you or Derek (or anyone else) want to suggest any changes feel free. Don't think I can fit much more on without overload but can alter stuff. Much as I'd like to include pictures and colour I'm afraid my budget won't run to that! Not sure how many I'll be able to do even in b/w but hope to take at least a couple of hundred.
Will PM this to Derek and BWR but....BWR what has happened to your website? I've put the link on the flyer but at the moment it isn't working, hope this is a temporary glitch?

Alison

[BWR]

It should be up and running again sometime soon.
If its not, I'll just make another copy of the petition website on another web server for the time being; all should be well again soon.
Good job I make regular backups of the petition signatures!!

I'll take a look at the flyer soon 

Thanks,

John.

[BWR]

Just adding a reply from another forum with regards to our petition, which can be found at : http://www.wildlifeuk.net/new-wildlife-petition-t-828.html

The person's reply was :

"I think this is quite unrealistic. How can anyone imagine that it is reasonable to force a professional person to provide their services free of charge? I picture some poor vet inundated with wild life demands, having no income whilst continuing to pay rent, rates and staff wages, and having to buy the treatment materials! "

and I replied :

"I think over 350 people must think otherwise : (makeitfree.blythwildliferescue.co.uk/view_petition.php

Not only that, but the fact that this petition aims to address such issues you mentioned that are felt by some practising Vets; some are inundated and have to cope with unnecessary numbers of wild animals, only because other Vets in the same area refuse to even check them over. Remember, one of the main aims of the campaign is to create EQUALITY within the veterinary profession, so that each and every Vet has a responsibility to care for a wild animal brought into their surgery.

It must also be remembered that we are not 'FORCING' anything on anyone; these Vets you speak of, like ALL registered Veterinary Surgeons in the UK have to declare under oath that they promise treat all animals in need of treatment and to prevent suffering.
So I find the fact that you stated that WE were the ones who were being 'unrealistic' quite hard to believe : the bottom line is that if Vets DID NOT want to treat animals and prevent suffering, then they wouldn't be in the job in the first place!

Furthermore, with regards to 'provide their services free of charge', we have purposely left that clause out of the campaign and petition with good reason. We are not saying that the Vet has to fund everything from their own pocket; this matter will have to be dealt with by the RCVS, perhaps introducing a scheme that allows Vets to apply for funds to cover the treatment of wildlife casualties, similar to the current scheme available via the RSPCA, where Vets can claim back expenses for treatment of all animals to the value of £60, in cases where a source of payment is not available.

The most important thing to do now is to get as many people involved with this campaign, by signing the petition, and bringing this issue to the attention if the relevant authorities for action."

Just posting here incase any other viewers have the same opinion of our petition

[Alison]

I still can't access the petition, the site has been 'dead' for the last few months, I assumed this was because of your technical problems but maybe it's just me, is it working at your end?

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