Page 3 - Winter 12/13

Welcome to the Winter issue of the mag.
I’d like to thank all our contributors this time –
some new names, along with the regulars. Your efforts don’t go unnoticed.
As you can read in Mark’s Pres letter, this year’s Animal Energy conference has changed venue (and format) but we have great hopes for this event in June. You can book online (www.bahvs.com) or download the form – do it now!
Sue Armstrong offers some optimism for us all while Shelley Epstein reports on a fas- cinating AVMA meeting that resulted in a great positive outcome in the USA in January.
More news in the IAVH section keeps us up-to-date with much that’s happening in the office and behind the scenes. They do a great job on our behalf and we need to give our support where needed.
Keep the articles coming in :)
Committee – BAHVS President – Mark Elliott homeopathicvet@btinternet.com
Malene
Senior Vice-President – Sue Armstrong health@balancedbeing.com
Junior Vice-President – Jane Keogh j.keogh5@btinternet.com
Hon. Secretary – Stuart Marston sec@bahvs.com
Treasurer – Wendy McGrandles wendy@glenbrae-vet.co.uk
Magazine Editor – Malene Jørgensen malene@laforcevitale.eu
Communications Officer – Nick Thompson nickthompson@holisticvet.co.uk
IAVH Representitive – Peter Gregory pg.ahimsa@virgin.net
Faculty Veterinary Representitive
John Saxton
john.saxton@talk21.com
Mag distribution – Cheryl Sears cheryl.sears31@btinternet.com
Committee – IAVH President – Peter Gregory pg.ahimsa@virgin.net
Treasurer – Andreas Schmidt a.schmidt@dplanet.ch
General Secretary – Helene Widmann helene.widmann@chello.at
Coordinator subcommittee for education:
Stefan Kohlrausch
stefan.kohlrausch@arcor.de
Head of IAVH Office – Markus Mayer office@iavh.org
Newsletter subcommittee
Malene Jørgensen
malene@laforcevitale.eu
IAVH Communications Officer
Nick Thompson
nickthompson@holisticvet.co.uk
LIGA contact – Marc Bär info@homeopatte.ch
Guest Editorial – Time for reflection by Sue Armstrong, UK
Dear Friends,
The winter is a time for reflection and the quiet germination of ideas that give hope for new growth and opportunity in the season to come. Our organisation has had to face some hard decisions in order to survive and such deci- sions are facing many of us on a daily basis in both our business and personal lives. These are difficult and challenging times and yet there is perhaps more optimism just beneath the sur- face, than I have felt for a very long time.
Despite many people being forced to change their decision-making on how they are spend- ing money and what their priorities are, I have seen a positive shift this year in the acceptance of homeopathy and integrative medicine and a willingness and hunger for education. When people have to think about limited resources, they start to question at a deeper level and many more people are becoming conscious of the long term consequences of actions rather than seeking instant gratification than ever before. If there is one good thing that comes out of austerity, this has to be it. Anything that encourages people to value health and to seek deeper understanding is a positive thing for society.
Veterinary practice is currently changing at an astonishing rate and as with human medicine the position of the old fashioned generalist vet- erinary surgeon appears to be limited. Many clients purchase their medications online, edu- cate themselves online and have adapted to the meteoric rise of the specialists and out of hours services in their stride. At the same time the skill sets of the veterinary homeopath and our understanding of health and disease that honours the whole being are actively being sought out by more and more people and homeopathic practice is growing.
I have also witnessed this year that the very
things that we have per-
haps been afraid of,
such as the mixed
virtues of the veterinary
profession’s require-
ment for Evidence Based Medicine, are now bringing positive opportunities for us. There is now some refreshing honesty coming into the veterinary profession, which has in my opinion been seriously lacking. I attended the RCVS Charitable Trusts discussion day in London this autumn entitled The Sceptical Vet: Eminence or Evidence and it exposed the hypocrisy of the current misnomer that the conventional world is based upon evidence and we are not. We have always known this but the conventional world strangely has not. Homeopathy was not on the agenda other than as the subject for a few flip comments and in fact it did not need to be as there were enough shortcomings in con- ventional research methodology and availability without the need for us to be scapegoated. There is now serious effort being made to change this situation and we should be involved, as the ultimate end purpose is the same for all of us – healing animals safely and effectively. We now have the biggest opportuni- ty to actually join in this venture at the ground level of its evolution. We have nothing to be afraid of here, as ultimately if our treatment works, it will stand up to scrutiny and we need to be asking the same questions of our modal- ity, as we do of any therapy.
I have ended this year back in love with being a veterinary surgeon and veterinary homeopath and believing that not only is positive change possible but that it is happening in front of our eyes. It is up to all of us to play an active part in, how veterinary homeopathy and veterinary medicine evolves for future generations.
The British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons (BAHVS) was formed in 1981, to advance the understanding, knowl- edge and practice of homeopathy. It aims to stimulate professional awareness of homeopa- thy and to encourage and to provide for the
training of veterinary surgeons in the practice of homeopathy.
It is an open forum for differing approaches to the subject of veterinary homeopathy and it’s application, allowing for constructive inter- changes of ideas.
This publication is copyright. No part of it may be reproduced without the permission of the Editor. Material published does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the BAHVS or the Editor.
The BAHVS does not necessarily endorse products or the companies advertised.
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