AVMA 2004 Conference Brings Protest and Victory

View PETA’s anti-AVMA billboard.

Members of PETA and United Poultry Concerns (UPC) greeted the several thousand veterinarians and veterinary students who attended the July 2004 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) annual convention in Philadelphia. One activist wore a crippled chicken costume and hobbled around on crutches in front of the main entrance to the convention to focus attention on the AVMA’s endorsement of the cruel practice of starving laying hens for two weeks to shock their bodies into another laying cycle.

AVMA members were also welcomed to Philadelphia by a billboard proclaiming, “End life in prison for pregnant pigs. Veterinarians shouldn’t be cruel to animals,” with a photograph of a sow in a gestation crate—another cruel factory farming system endorsed by the AVMA.

The Philadelphia protests were part of a long campaign to persuade the national veterinary group to renounce cruel practices employed by the factory-farming industry. Voting delegates to the AVMA were also appealed to through e-mail campaigns, in full-page New York Times advertisements, and in letter-writing and telephone campaigns. Veterinary students were given information on these cruel practices at their universities, conferences, and other events.

Previously, the AVMA had declared itself immune from public lobbying, but animal rights campaigners lobbied their members, who were shocked and repulsed to learn that the AVMA was violating the “veterinarian’s oath” to protect animals by allowing industry representatives to ignore the science and support cruel practices.

A Victory for Chickens!
In the middle of the UPC/PETA protest at the July 2004 conference, we got word from our vet friends inside the convention that the AVMA had reversed its stance on starving hens (“forced molting”) by passing a resolution condemning the practice—defying the industry pawns on the AVMA Advisory Committee. The resolution, which was principally the work of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, brings the AVMA in line with its Canadian counterpart, which condemned forced molting in July 2000. Read more about the cruelty endured by chickens used for their eggs.

Stalling on Resolutions to Help Pigs and Geese
Despite a committee recommendation in behalf of a resolution that would condemn cramming pipes down animals’ throats and pumping massive quantities of food directly into their stomachs, the measure was rejected, though many AVMA members are hopeful that the resolution will pass in 2005. Learn more about foie gras.

The AVMA also refused to take action on gestation crates—tiny concrete-and-steel pens where pregnant and nursing sows experience physical and psychological agony. The systems confine them for up to six years, during which time they are unable to turn around, breath fresh air, or do anything that they would like to do. Learn more about gestation crates.

Read more about the cruel practices still endorsed by the AVMA.

Learn how you can help convince the AVMA to take a stand for farmed animals.