The World Veterinary Association created World Vet Day in 2000. It’s a celebration of the veterinary profession and all they do, held on the last Saturday of April every year.
Since 2019, the WVA has partnered with HealthforAnimals, the global voice of the animal health industry, to promote World Vet Day.
There is a different theme for World Vet Day every year. WVA members (the veterinary associations of various countries) can apply for the WVD Award, presented each year to a member whose activities support the theme of the year.
The theme for World Vet Day 2024
This 2024 theme is ‘Veterinarians are essential health workers’.
It’s easy to think that vets are looking after animals rather than humans, but they also contribute to human physical, mental and social wellbeing. In fact, the Australian veterinary oath includes a commitment to ‘protect the health of the public and environment, and advance comparative medical knowledge’.
What does that look like in practice?
- Public health vets are involved with meat inspection; meat and food contamination issues; disease control; regulation of drug use and residues, and more.
- Rural practices care for livestock, including both food animals (beef cattle, pigs) and food-producing animals (dairy cattle, chickens laying eggs).
- Small animal practices, whether rural or urban, care for much-loved pets whose owners see them as part of the family. Studies show that pet ownership has many health benefits – from reduced stress to better heart health to prevention of allergies, eczema and asthma.
- Equine specialists don’t simply support those who own horses for personal pleasure, they’re also part of a major industry. The Australian thoroughbred industry alone employs over 75,000 people.
- Vets play an essential part in conservation, whether that’s working with exotics in zoos or with native wildlife. A better environment adds to the quality of human life both short and long term.
- Vets also work for organisations like Guide Dogs Australia. Their dogs are even more important to their owners than a ‘simple pet’ is – they enable independence and a better life overall.
Why do vets need their own special day?
Vets in Australia, as in many other countries, face a whole range of challenges. They deserve some recognition!
Vets are in demand and under pressure
Around 69% of Australian households have at least one pet. It’s estimated there are 28.7 million pets in the country. That’s more than the total number of humans! Then there’s the livestock, racehorses, zoo animals, and native wildlife.
In addition to heavy workload, vets face other challenges:
- Out-of-hours work and on-call work are a part of life for vets just as they are for human medical doctors. It’s especially hard in rural areas.
- Vets deal with emotional situations again and again. Owners are often (understandably!) stressed – vets have to look after them as well as their animals.
- Veterinary medicine has some challenges above and beyond those a doctor faces. The vet has to deal with multiple species rather than just one. Plus, the patients can’t communicate to explain pain or symptoms. Many actually hide symptoms too.
- A vet practice handles everything from general checkups and vaccinations to x-rays, surgery, dentistry and more. For multiple species too, remember!
- The costs of veterinary care are not subsidised. While owners may know this in theory, in practice many are shocked by the cost of vet bills, and they don’t always react well. This places yet another stress on the poor vet trying to make a living by helping animals.
Sadly, all this means high burn-out and suicide rates in the veterinary community. The vet suicide rate is around 4 times the Australian average. That’s ironic when you think about how vets look after the pets which help so many others with mental health! We need to look after our vets better.
So as a simple first step, on World Vet Day (and every other day), whenever you’re talking to a vet, join the team at Radincon and say: