Valuing Animals: Veterinarians and Their Patients in Modern America (review)

First, a confession: I have been largely ignorant of the history of veterinary medicine, excepting occasional bits of information divulged by deans who are reliant on the great-alumni theory of history. I also (wrongly) assumed that the veterinary profession had begun as a rural one and that the recent interest in public health, zoonotic diseases, and foreign infectious diseases of animals were new fields of opportunity for veterinarians. I am indebted to Susan Jones for enlightening me.

Using the methods of social history, Susan D. Jones's Valuing Animals examines how the veterinary profession has adapted to changes in society's use and perception of animals and how the profession has occasionally advanced these changes in society. The book's central thesis is that the growth and development of the profession gives insight into the relationship that Americans have had with domesticated species during the twentieth century. As Jones succinctly states in the preface, "Veterinarians' activities reveal the position of various animals in society and vice versa" (p. xi).

The book is divided into six chapters, four of which correspond to major changes in societies' relationship with animals. The first chapter describes the organization of veterinary medicine as a profession in the late nineteenth century and the founding of the Bureau of Animal Industry in 1884. The second chapter details the profession's roots in urban equine practice, prior to the advent of the internal combustion engine. The third chapter discusses the regulation of animal products (meat, milk) at the turn of the twentieth century and veterinarians' mediating role in creating and enforcing new public health laws. The fourth chapter explores veterinarians' reaction to the development of intensive factory-farming, in which patients were reduced to a set of economic figures. The fifth chapter traces the origins of the modern household pet, the pet food industry, and the burgeoning field of small animal medicine in the second half of the twentieth century.

The final (and perhaps best) chapter examines the relationship between veterinarians' discordant roles as both guardians of animal health and welfare and protectors of human economic interests in animals. It is also in this chapter that Jones cuts to the heart of her objectives, to explore discrepancies in society's treatment of different domesticated animal species by using veterinarians' quandary as a mirror of the moral dilemma faced by all: are animals companions or commodities? Her answer is that they are both. Jones argues that veterinarians answer this question for society by deeming which animals are and are not appropriate for eating and the type and amount of care that the different groups deserve.

Jones's book was a fascinating read and was refreshingly not a tale of inexorable scientific and medical progress toward an idyllic present. Rather, her book openly and explicitly describes the ways in which the profession has developed and protected its economic interests. The book also demonstrates that, less often than we might like, veterinarians have not been the instigators of change but have had to react to changes in public opinion. It would not be the first time that the profession has been characterized as a stubborn and largely conservative lot.

It might have been interesting for Jones to have discussed how foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease, anthrax, and other potential forms of bioterrorism have changed society's perception of animals and the field of veterinary medicine. A comparison with European veterinarians and perceptions of animals would also have been illuminating but was unfortunately beyond the scope of the book. Regardless, this book brings to light the hows and whys of veterinary medicine and gave me a measure of self-awareness of my professional roots and current role in American society.