Alberta veterinarians vote to ban ‘inhumane’ procedures

Body piercing
Cosmetic dentistry
Devocalization
Ear cropping
Front dewclaw removal
Partial digital amputation
Tail Blocking
Tail Docking
Tail Nicking
Tattooing that is not used for registration or identification
Tendonectomy

Dr. Kent Fruson is a local veterinarian and has been practicing for nearly 35-years.

He says this announcement was good news, but he feels Alberta is behind the curve.

“We probably should’ve been the forerunners doing this years ago,” explained Fruson. “I’m really proud that we got to join forces with pretty much the rest of Canada and the rest of the countries in the developed world that are banning those cosmetic procedures.”

Fruson says this announcement is all about doing the humane thing.

“For the most part, people have a sense of humane-care for animals. We will do things for medical reasons, but not cosmetics. People want to do those things to continue looking 14 for the rest of their life. Cosmetically, I don’t feel it’s fair to the animals.”

For Fruson, not much changes at his establishment.

“We have had some requests in the past for funny body piercings. We’ve also got some funny requests for removal of hair on pets and our approach to that is to say we respectfully deny providing those services for purely cosmetic reasons. It just doesn’t make a ton of sense.”

Once passed, Alberta would join several other provinces in banning unnecessary surgical procedures.

The ABVMA council is hopeful to have a new policy in place by the spring.

by Taylor Chartrand

Alberta veterinarians vote to ban ‘inhumane’ procedures

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