Regulating the veterinary profession: taking seriously the best interests of the animal

Veterinary medicine is one of the oldest recognised professions in the United Kingdom. Unlike other analogous professions, veterinarians have largely escaped external pressures to increase patient-centred professional regulation. Having said this, the changing ways in which owners subjectively relate with their animals, combined with a profession increasingly aware of ethical and legal tensions found in the modern veterinary relationship, raise questions as to whether current professional guidance remains fit for purpose. In response, it is argued that current guidance fails to adequately inform veterinarians and that, going forward, a model which places the best interests of the animal at the centre of the veterinary relationship should be adopted.