Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
I don't think self-regulation has broken down in the RCVS actually, it only seems to have done so to some of us who had horrendous experiences during FMD and hoped for some retribution which was not forthcoming under the circumstances.

I am certainly of the opinion that if it's replaced with a State Licensing system it will prove to be far worse for both the vets and their clients. In that regard the vet should be worried.

Someone will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I guess that 80% of the vets in the UK today are working in Small Animal Practice only. There can be few, if any that are exclusively large animal firms and not too many left that are mixed!

Therein lay the problem during FMD – remember? So many vets from Small Animal work both here and abroad who offered to help but had never seen 'orf' let alone FMD!

I hope they'll pardon me for saying so but it was only the often elderly, nearing retirement, 'old boys' who had been around in 1967/8 and could remember. They not only recognised the disease but also had a more understanding attitude towards the farmers affected.

It's all very well to criticise the vets but they're no different to the rest of us. How many of us have had dreams never realised because the opportunities just never materialised?

There may have been, and no doubt still are, many vets who had dreams of treating farm animals once they qualified but found when they did that the jobs just weren't there, or if they were, they didn't last long.

What are they to do? With wives and children to support they can only go into small animal practice – if they're lucky – or accept a job with the SVS as TB testers, meat inspectors or paper pushers, etc. or as in some cases decide to change their choice of career!

Just because some of us have come across what we consider to be a ‘bad vet’ doesn’t mean they’re all the same. There are plenty of good guys ‘n dolls out there, both old and young and they don’t have to sit on the RCVS councils and committees to prove it!

FMD came as a shock to us all and once the method of control was adopted, urged on and backed up by the PM's science advisors, the ill chosen Anderson team, then the 'dye was cast'.

Sure there were those of us who screamed for vaccination because we knew it 'worked' and we hated the slaughter of healthy animals but we have to admit we also knew they didn't have enough of it at the time and what they had was rapidly running out of date. Our hope that they would speedily manufacture more, order and use it was in vain. Maintaining FMD free status was deemed more important and sadly it still is.

As for the PCR/Smart Cycler machine, beautiful piece of equipment it may be, but validated or not, there just weren't enough of them available at the time anyway, so logistically it's use simply wasn't feasible.

To my mind there’s little point in going over old ground and bemoaning the past when there’s a very easy answer to the whole problem. (And I’ve not changed my mind in this one iota over the past three years!) The only trouble is that so many people don’t agree with me! Well...not yet anyway!