Sep 09 2010
The HumaneWatch interview: Dr. Ron DeHaven
You’d think that leading a respected group of 80,000 veterinarians would earn Ron DeHaven considerable “street cred” with the animal rights movement. But judging from their behavior, groups like the Humane Society of the United States see Dr. DeHaven and his American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) as just another obstacle in the way of “liberating” animals from their human oppressors.
Do you own or train dogs? Raise livestock? Breed horses? Sell eggs? Worse yet, are you a veterinarian who identifies more with farmers than with PETA? If so, you’re in HSUS’s crosshairs, and Ron DeHaven regularly catches flak on your behalf.
Alert HumaneWatchers will remember that in May, Dr. DeHaven called out HSUS on YouTube. Here’s a bit of what he said about HSUS CEO Wayne Pacelle:
Mr. Pacelle is ignoring the legitimate concerns, and the perspectives and expertise, of legitimate animal welfare scientists and veterinary experts. And he is misleading the public to further his own organization's agenda. If Mr. Pacelle truly cared about the welfare of animals, he would not be so quick to criticize and minimize the expertise of veterinarians ... A knee-jerk response based solely on emotion, and ignoring all of the relevant science, might not be in the best interest of the animals.
Before taking the post of Executive Vice President at the AVMA, Dr. DeHaven worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, serving as Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). By the time he accepted that role, he had already spent several years as APHIS’s chief administrator of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act. You may remember him as the USDA’s veterinary spokesman during the mad cow disease scare.
Ron DeHaven took some time out from his busy professional life to answer a few questions about his organization, and about what HSUS has against animal doctors.
For the benefit of HumaneWatch readers who aren’t veterinarians, can you briefly summarize what the AVMA is, and what it does? Is it basically a trade group for animal doctors, or does it weigh in on public policy matters that affect animals’ health?
The AVMA is the professional organization for veterinarians—much like the AMA for physicians or the American Bar Association for attorneys. Our mission is to improve animal and human health and advance the veterinary medical profession. We are actively engaged in public policy at both the state and federal levels on behalf of our members – on topics ranging from animal welfare to responsible use of pharmaceuticals, and from homeland security to small business issues.
But government relations is only one part of what we do. We conduct educational sessions at our annual convention, we develop guidance to improve veterinary medical practice, and we facilitate access to the services and products that our members want. Our volunteers and staff are dedicated to making sure veterinarians have the tools they need to be successful in their careers, in their families, and in their communities.
A few years ago the Humane Society of the United States merged with the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, and the “Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association”(HSVMA) was born. Is this an attempt to poach members away from the AVMA and compete with the “establishment” veterinary group?
I can’t speak to their motivations, but the existence of the HSVMA does not affect any of the things the AVMA does to serve and represent veterinarians. Our 80,000 member veterinarians care for domestic and wild animals used for companionship, food, fiber, work, research, and entertainment. The HSVMA is looking at a narrow set of issues from one perspective. We function at a more universal level for the good of everyone who is involved with and benefits from veterinary medicine.
It’s difficult to imagine that veterinarians who have been in small-animal private practice for decades might walk out on the AVMA and latch on to a new group. It’s even a bigger stretch to think that livestock vets would gravitate toward something (anything!) connected with HSUS. So what’s going on? Is HSUS trying to attract the loyalty of younger veterinary students? Are they going after the next generation?
Once again, I can’t speak to the HSUS’s motivations. But I think it would be fair to say that the HSVMA is making a concerted effort to have a presence on veterinary school campuses. At the same time, I’ve talked to many students (including but not limited to Student AVMA leaders. As a whole, they seem skeptical of the HSUS’s motivations. And they’re generally unimpressed by its efforts.
One of the things that might make the HSVMA attractive to younger veterinarians (and students) is its “Rural Area Veterinary Services” volunteer program, which claims to offer more than $1 million in free veterinary services every year. Does the AVMA offer anything like that for underserved communities, or are you planning to?
We certainly see value in broadening the experience of veterinary students beyond traditional areas of practice, and we understand that there’s a need to improve access to basic veterinary care in the U.S.
Although it is too early to commit, we have been evaluating a proposal for the development of a program that would provide low-cost veterinary care to populations in need. It would also give veterinary students the opportunity to get hands-on experience in the field.
In the meantime, the AVMA already provides opportunities for externs and interns in both the public and private sectors, and those opportunities aren’t limited to field work. So if a student is interested in gaining experience in private practice, industry, nonprofits, government, research, zoos/aquariums, or environmental and public health (just to name a few practice areas), I’d encourage them to visit our website or call us for information about these programs.
It makes sense that young veterinarians wouldn’t initially trust HSUS’s fledgling veterinary group, since it hasn’t been active in their field for very long. But what do you see beyond the horizon? Once the HSVMA is 10 or 20 years old, will it be considered the AVMA’s moral equal? How will you compete in a “market” where you’ve never really had a serious competitor before?
Right now, we’re more focused on what our members, including students, want the AVMA to be in 10 to 20 years and how we can best serve them. We’re not all that concerned about what another group might be doing.
The HSVMA has a very specific animal rights focus; the AVMA advocates for the profession across the whole spectrum of issues affecting veterinary medicine. In that sense, we have no competition.
It’s great that the AVMA is working toward providing more veterinary care to financially strapped populations (especially in the current economy). If HSUS were planning that sort of charitable outreach for the first time, it would be releasing ads, erecting celebrity-endorsement billboards, blitzing its e-mail lists, and (of course) using the exposure to raise money. When your effort launches, can we expect to hear all about it from top-tier media outlets? Or does the AVMA work more quietly?
We don’t have the budget HSUS has to promote itself, so the AVMA would be unlikely to toot its own horn as loudly. We have a responsibility to our members to conscientiously spend our budget, approximately 60% of which comes from member dues.
We use that income on projects, services, and benefits that provide veterinarians with a great return on their investment. We’d be more likely to spend money developing, supporting, and enhancing the delivery of much-needed services than to launch high-profile, expensive media campaigns that can easily cost millions of dollars.
We get that you have to be cautious about the words you use when you talk about HSUS. But many veterinarians who “get the joke” about HSUS’s intentions would get a boost of confidence from seeing the AVMA acknowledge that HSUS has declared war on the veterinary profession as we know it. Will you keep sending the message to Wayne Pacelle that veterinarians don’t want activists to lead them around by the nose?
It’s true that Wayne Pacelle has launched some vicious, and in my view, unfounded attacks against the AVMA. We’re not afraid to speak up and correct misinformation or rebut false allegations, but we have no interest in becoming entangled in a so-called “battle” that would waste time, effort, and money but do little to nothing to improve animal health and welfare. Rather than attacking another organization, we’re spending our resources to make the AVMA the premier organization that supports veterinarians and the animals we serve.
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Excellent post, thanks!!
It seems like HSUS considers itself the exception to their own unofficial rule of “If you make money off of animals, you are evil.” Farmers are evil, dog breeders are evil, and apparently now even veterinarians are evil. Never mind the fact that HSUS makes more money off of animals than anyone. THEY are supposedly doing it for the right reasons. Vets, farmers, and breeders (and any shelters that speak against HSUS) are simply in it for the money, but those few who align themselves with HSUS seem to get a free pass.
Perhaps soon HSUS will send all their “members” licenses to profit financially from animals by HSUS-approved methods, including but not limited to: vegan propaganda and lobbying activities, mandatory spay/neuter enforcement, undercover video doctoring, -er… editing, illegal seizures (including collection of funds for subsequent legal fees), and running rehab sanctuaries for former agriculturally indentured non-human sentient beings.
Great post—I think many people are not aware the kind of influence the animal rights movement has on budding vet students, particularly when it comes to pushing spay/neuter on dogs.
However, coming from the dog fancy, I have felt that lately AVMA has caved a little to AR groups and is turning their back on dog owners….from speaking out against tail docking to being wishy-washy on spay/neuter age, and worst of all the model “commercial breeder” bill. That bill falls right in line with what AR people want, and goes so far as to state that dog owners need written permission from their vet to breed their dog?! (What?) These actions from AVMA recently have me a little concerned about their intentions and the future of AVMA.
The AVMA sees what is going on. Dr. DeHaven has certainly taken some heat for being as blunt as he has been in the past about HSUS and their motives. Not surprisingly, his words in this most recent interview were carefully chosen. At the end of the day, everyone should see that HSUS is indeed “into exploiting” every possible opportunity - even creating opportunities just to raise money. What’s worse, is the money they raise goes to causes only a small minority of HSUS members would actually support. What a scam. A well executed scam, but a scam none the less.
THANK YOU Dr. Ron for being honest and standing your ground! It means a lot to many, many people. Please do keep it up and do keep a strong dialogue with vet students and recent grads. HSUS is heavily targeting them.
Day by day, people are learning the truth. Let’s all do our part to spread the word!
I think this division among veterinarians has become more pronounced over the past decade. As a dog breeder, I am well aware that there are veterinarians—and then there are veterinarians. The former group will not provide any veterinary care involving whelp or care of newborn puppies, but will gladly spay and neuter anything that comes in the door. They also tend to diagnose by using the current “buzz word” in the AVMA publication rather than on lab and x-ray results. This same group seems to know nothing about health certifications and cannot provide referrals to canine opthalmologists, or canine orthopedic surgeons—even in the case of a medical emergency.
The latter group is truly available for the treatment of all facets of a dog’s life and health and will make a referral when he or she is ill equipped or not adequately trained to provide the needed level of care. They are also more likely to remain current on new and improved treatments, surgical procedures, and will be more likely to follow trends that are unique to individual breeds of dogs as far as reactions to vaccines and anesthesia.
In the veterinary hospital I use there are 7 vets:there are two who perform no surgeries whatsoever and only give shots—yet none of the vets is a supposed expert. Unfortunately, too many people are more impressed by the vet who smiles and jokes with them but provides absolutely no valuable care for their ailing pet.
I friend of mine hit a small breed dog that was in the middle of the road on a Friday morning and immediately scooped it up and took it to the nearest vet. The intake vet said they needed to stabilize the dog and keep in on IV overnight before they could proceed. When she returned, she was told that the dog needed surgery, but “the surgeon” would not be in until Wednesday afternoon. Why would a vet clinic not be able to handle a surgery any day of the week if they are open and have mutliple vets on the premises? She was told the surgery would cost $900, so she asked what the xray and iv bill and boarding would run until Wednesday—$1200! She wisely paid her $500 bill for the 24 hour stay and took the dog to my vet on Monday morning. The dog had his broken leg repaired immediately for $400. The original vet never did send any of the lab work that he billed to the other vet.
As I said, there are veterinarians—-and then there are veterinarians. A license to practice is no indication of the quality of work. The question is whether you want a veterinarian who graduated at the top of his class or one who barely made it. Both will still be called “Doctor.”
I encourage everyone to read the article on Ron DeHaven, D.V.M. He answered some questions in an interview and made some very good points regarding the care of small and large animals from a truly professional animal medical provider without doing any name calling towards some veterinarians associated with HSUS. Dr. DeHaven in his own words stated he wasn’t getting involved in a war of words with anything involved with HSUS and instead focuses on the task at hand, providing responsible and quality care for animals. He did make a very god point when he referred to the “knee jerk response based solely on emotion” that is a cornerstone of the HSUS. The HSUS plays on peoples’ emotions which is a powerful tool, especially against people who mean well but have been mislead by the HSUS.
I’m glad to see Mr. DeHaven standing up to HSUS and I respect his decision not to get into a mud-slinging contest with them. On the other hand, I hope he realizes that this is war and you cannot simply “focus on issues at hand” when the battering rams are cracking the gate.
The AKC made this mistake and they are now peddling fast to make up for lost time. You simply cannot keep your skirts clean when you’re up to your knees in casualties. I hope the AVMA is aware that no pets = no clients. I’m just not sure they are taking the animal rights threat as seriously as they should.
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This subject really scares me. It seems the majority of students entering vet schools across the nation have no agriculture backgrounds, and have no interest in becoming anything other than a small animal (pet) veterinarian.
Really scary to me was a recent TV ad that was shown locally promoting a vet tech degree from a local tech school, saying, “join the growing field of animal rescuers and become a vet tech” Vet school does not provide any specialized education on animal husbandry, but at least farmers, ranchers, dog breeders, and other still generally have a vet on their side to verify that their animals are indeed healthy and well-cared for, but who knows what will be the case if the AR groups continue to infiltrate, or even recruit students to become vets only under THEIR specific clouded agenda?
Those involved in animal production should demand that their state vet school stand firm in rejecting all attempts by these groups to influence students, or potential students.