Stacey Angus

Disappointing to read surveys into experiences of vet students seeing practice to find the two biggest forms of discrimination is sexism and racism and overall discrimination was most commonly experienced when seeing farm practice. Such a shame and we need to be better!

A memorable passge from James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small. As I mentioned earlier, I read his books (and nearly memorized them) back in middle school. After I had practiced about a year, a stumbled across the books again and re-read several chapters. It occurred to me that large animal, especially rural cattle practice, was basically unchanged from whatit was in the '40's. Sure, technology helped, life in general was much easier than back then but the physical demands, the effect of weather, the strength of the animals was unchanged. More significantly, the personalities were very similar. I could relate to his farmer clients and the pet owners described in his books "My mind went back to that picture in the obstetrics book. A cow standing in the middle of a gleaming floor while a sleek veterinary surgeon in a spotless parturition overall inserted his arm to a polite distance. He was relaxed and smiling, the farmer and his helpers were smiling, even the cow was smiling. There was no dirt or blood or sweat anywhere. That man in the picture had just finished an excellent lunch and had moved next door to do a bit of calving just for the sheer pleasure of it, as a kind of dessert. He hadn't crawled shivering from his bed at two o'clock in the morning and bumped over twelve miles of frozen snow, staring sleepily ahead till the lonely farm showed in the headlights. He hadn't climbed half a mile of white fell-side to the doorless barn where his patient lay."