1 Jul 2026
Malcolm Morley suggested many vets “don’t appreciate how much help is out there” for owners, but “we can only help these people if they're flagged to us”.
Chris Simpson
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Malcolm Morley. Image © BVA
Vets should engage more with the charity sector to help prevent animal welfare harms, a senior clinician has urged.
World Horse Welfare director of UK Malcolm Morley said it is “very clearly [vets’] responsibility not to start enabling” poor ownership practices.
Speaking in the BVA Live session, “Whose responsibility is it anyway – the reality/complexity of dog, cat and horse ownership”, he said: “One of the greatest problems in irresponsible ownership is misplaced care.
“Whether we’re dealing with people like that or at the other end of the spectrum, people who are hoarding animals, we all need to accept responsibility for when we might enable poor ownership. I think those are really challenging conversations.”
The BVA past-president noted many owners of animals with welfare issues “often have even greater problems” of their own, such as poor physical or mental health, financial constraints or bereavement. He added: “I think a lot of vets in practice don’t appreciate how much help there is out there. We can only help these people if they’re flagged to us.”
Claire Calder, head of public affairs at Dogs Trust, said vets had a “hugely important” role to play “on the frontline”.
She urged clinicians to point dog owners toward the charity for help with behaviour issues, adding: “It’s always good for vets to familiarise themselves with the resources and support that charities can offer.”
Dr Morley also observed many vets were “very reticent to breach client confidentiality”, noting it is permitted in the RCVS code in animal welfare cases, but a threshold is not set.
He continued: “It’s for us to decide that threshold. If you work closely with other organisations who can put in that time, like World Horse Welfare or others, it’s a perfectly good reason to breach client confidentiality.
“I see some vets frequently doing that and coming to us and informing us, and I’ve never seen that become a problem.”
Susan Cunningham, past-president of BVA’s Northern Ireland branch, called for better education of young children on animal welfare issues.
She said: “If you tell a five-year-old [buying from a puppy farm is] unacceptable and spend the next few years telling them why, and if animal welfare is included in the curriculum in schools, then we might not have such trouble.
“Whereas try changing the behaviour of an Amazon-led mid-lifer who’s used to something being delivered tomorrow.”
Dr Morley disagreed. He said: “[For] many of the people who are falling through the cracks, it’s not simply about telling them what is right; it is about trying to set them up in other ways, and I’m not sure just simple education, as we might see it, is the right way of thinking.”
He suggested a more pressing issue is “a huge gap of enforcement in the UK” and “inadequately resourced” local authorities, leaving much of the work to animal welfare charities.
Ms Calder agreed that “enforcement at the moment really is a challenge”, adding: “It’s fair to say it’s complex and there’s not going to be one solution, there’s not one golden bullet that’s going to [fix] everything.”