Vets are trusted to a massive extent by the British public with the results of a new opinion poll placing the profession higher in the trust league than even GPs, dentists and head teachers.
The poll, commissioned as part of the Vet Futures project, and backed by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) and British Veterinary Association (BVA), returned a 94% trust rating for vets, placing them just behind opticians (95%) and pharmacists (97%).
“The veterinary profession sets itself very high standards and we know from our own member research that vets are particularly concerned, and sometimes worried, about how their clients, and wider society, perceive them,” said BVA president, John Blackwell. “So it is particularly heartening to learn that the general public holds the profession in such high regard.”
Mr Blackwell added that he hoped the Vet Futures project would “raise awareness” of the very wide range of essential roles carried out by veterinary surgeons.
This included highlighting the work vets were doing in clinical practice with livestock and pets right the way through to their involvement in ground-breaking research. He also drew attention to the profession’s role in both safeguarding the food we eat and upholding and promoting the “very best animal welfare standards”.
