Abstract

The perception of animal welfare within our society has begun to increase proactively in the last decade. At present time, the attention paid to bioethical issues emerging from human-animal relationship and animal management focuses particularly on veterinarians, who have the key role to identify and implement the criteria related to animal welfare.

Considering all the aspects of this very important and delicate issue, we can certainly claim that this category of professional workers has a deep knowledge and cultural understanding of the issues related to health and husbandry procedures but, very often, the perception of all the other aspects involved needs strict cooperation with other professionals. This concept applies to all veterinarians, including those who work with aquatic animals.

Veterinarians are involved in operations that proceed from the animal choice and acquisition and quarantine to direct handling, reproduction, diagnostic, therapy and ... up to the "final end" of the animal life. All these procedures represent the key steps of the daily animal management of an aquarium or zoo, and each one of these includes different ethical aspects related not only with animal welfare, but also environmental sustainability and social impact. "Future Veterinarians" should therefore increase and improve the know-how of all these aspects, in order to prepare the new generations to these far-reaching perspectives of animal care.

Acknowledgements

To my professors Barbara De Mori from the University of Padova and Bernard Rollin from Colorado State University and to all the veterinarians and professionals who shared with us their experience and daily works for the welfare of the animals we take care of.

* Presenting author

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