Brachycephaly: practices should take care with online imagery

Practices should pay particular attention to the images they post on social media and on their websites to avoid unintentionally promoting brachycephalic breeds. This was the advice given by Sean Wensley, the PDSA’s senior veterinary surgeon for communication and education, during a session at the British Veterinary Nursing Association’s (BVNA’s) congress earlier this month. For example, he said, a practice might post a picture of a brachycephalic patient on social media with a cheerful caption along the lines of ‘Look at this beautiful little fellow that came in today.’ ‘We can inadvertently celebrate brachys in our practice communications,’ he said. He also advised vets and veterinary nurses (VNs) to think of the language they used in association with brachycephalic breeds. Despite the acknowledged health problems linked to brachycephaly, these were sometimes referred to as ‘normal for the breed’. ‘"Normal" is associated with "normalisation" and this is something to worry...
Source: Veterinary Record - Category: Veterinary Research Tags: News section Source Type: research