The recent announcement of the RCVS’s proposed decision to recommend the de-democratisation of the election of RCVS council members, to move to a primarily appointed council of non-veterinary surgeons and to relegate veterinary representation to a subsidiary and diminished role threatens the future of the veterinary profession.

Urged to make this a matter for a general referendum of the veterinary profession, the RCVS, under government pressure, ignored this request and intends to impose an oligarchic and anti-democratic future for the governance of this profession: typically, rolling over to external pressure with no concern for the effects upon its members.

The consequences of this momentous behind-closed-doors decision will be a vast increase in the pressure upon veterinary surgeons who are already suffering under the abuse and hostility of a vindictive element of the public, whom this move is calculated to appease. We will see an increase in the already wholly unacceptable levels of self-harm and suicide as a consequence of this appallingly ill-considered decision.

Join me in demanding that the RCVS makes this decision a matter for a referendum of our noble and threatened profession before it is too late!