Veterinarians occupy a unique position as both individual animal advocates and participants in systems that cause large-scale animal suffering.
Veterinarians experience profound moral distress from the gap between their training to heal animals and the practices they participate in or observe in agricultural contexts. Compassion fatigue affects a majority of veterinary practitioners. At the same time, veterinarians are uniquely positioned to advocate for animal welfare from inside agricultural systems and influence both individual and policy-level change.