Sixty nine percent of veterinarians recently surveyed felt moderate to severe distress about not being able to give animals what they believe to be the right care. Nearly two-thirds were bothered by inappropriate requests for euthanasia. These were but two of the findings of a study published October 15 in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Link. Study authors believe there is a connection between their results and the higher-than-average suicide rate of veterinarians. They call for better training about how to handle moral distress.
Source: NPR shots, October 17, 2018. Link. “I want to make a plea to the pet-owning public to understand that, no matter what you think, odds are the person who’s trying to help you take care of your animal has pretty strong feelings about how important that is,” she says, “And they feel it.”