Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.
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Today's VeTerinary PracTice | January/February 2016 | tvpjournal.com The Back Page: VeTerinary VieWPoinTs 136 The Value of the Fear Free Initiative an interview with dr. Marty Becker Dr. Marty Becker has spent his career working toward better health for pets and the people who love them. He was the resident veterinary contributor on Good Morning America for 17 years; a founding member of Core Team Oz—a group of key guest contributors for The Dr. Oz Show ; and a Today Show contributor. Currently, Dr. Becker is the Chief Veterinary Correspondent and a Board of Directors member of the American Humane Association. He also practices at North Idaho Animal Hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, which fulflls his love of veterinary medicine, pets, and the people who care for them. In recent years, his greatest commitment and dedication has been to the concept of "taking the pet out of petrifed ," and ensuring that every pet and pet owner can experience a "fear free" veterinary visit. Can you explain the Fear Free Initiative? Simply put, Fear Free is a commitment to better pet health and well-being based on an understanding of the detrimental effects of fear and stress on animal health and the damage it does to the veterinarian–client– patient relationship. This initiative relies on protocols, products, and procedures designed to reduce or remove stress, anxiety, and fear from trips to the veterinary clinic and other pet service providers. How was the idea for Fear Free born? My frst introduction to stress-less handling began almost 30 years ago when famed behaviorist and champion of the human–animal bond—R.K. Anderson, DVM, MPH, Diplomate ACVB & ACVPM—came to our Salt Lake City All Pet Complex to show us how to turn the typical All Pain Veterinary Hospital into the All Treat Veterinary Hospital . We took baby steps in that direction, but it was viewed as just another customer service concept and certainly not a practice imperative. Later, I was exposed to veterinary behaviorists, such as Gary Landsberg, DVM, Diplomate ACVB & ECVB (Companion Animal); Debra Horwitz, DVM, Diplomate ACVB; and Wayne Hunthausen, DVM. However, the idea of Fear Free was born in 2009 when I heard behaviorist Karen Overall, MA, VMD, PhD, Diplomate ACVB, say in a lecture that fear was the worst thing a social species could experience and it caused permanent damage to the brain. By the end of her talk, I realized we in the veterinary profession were causing repeated, severe emotional and physical harm to pets by focusing only on animals' physical well-being, but not their emotional well-being. How did you get your idea off the ground? After leaving Dr. Overall's lecture, I actually felt sick to my stomach thinking about all the pets who had been unintentionally harmed under my care. But I also saw what an incredible opportunity this was for our profession. I contacted as many key infuencers and experts in veterinary medicine as I could (I have a good Rolodex!), telling them what I'd learned, discussing why I thought this was the reason veterinary visits continued to decline, and asking for their help in taking action on an urgent obligation. I reminded them of our oath as health care professionals: "To frst do no harm." I told them "fear free" veterinary visits are an aspirational goal for veterinary medicine. What does Fear Free look like today? With special help from Dr. Gary Landsberg, we have assembled an almost 150-person Fear Continued on page 135