The 34th World Veterinary Association (WVA) Congress, held in Barcelona on May 7th, 2018, presented Chinese vet Dr. Zhijuan Yin with an “Animal Welfare Prize” for her outstanding contribution to animal welfare and animal protection. Besides Dr. Yin, there were four other honorees from Brazil, Canada, Senegal, and Sweden respectively.
This Congress established the latest global standards for animal welfare, providing principles for addressing animal problems.
Vets are vital for promoting animal welfare. Their role is becoming more significant as animal issues grab growing attention in our society. “Animal Welfare Prize,” among the most important awards given out by WAV, stands for the highest recognition of people who have significantly contributed to animal welfare and animal protection in different fields.
Dr. Yin, a young veterinary from A Rong Pet Hospital in Nanning (Capital city of China’s Guangxi province), was awarded for her professionalism and enthusiasm for public interest. She has been working on the Chinese project launched by ACT Asia and Vets for Compassion (VFC) since 2009. After confronting her shortcomings in specialty and animal welfare with an open mind and learning from VFC’s international experts, she finally passed VFC’s professional certification examination and became a VFC-certified vet trainer in China. By volunteering, she joined forces with Chinese vets, animal hospitals, and animal protection organizations to tackle the stray animal problem and to generate awareness of animal welfare throughout the whole industry. She has specifically been trying her best to promote flank spay, which aims to control the animal population and prevent the outbreak of rabies.
Yuanyuan Zhang is one of the founders of ACT Asia and VFC’s “animal welfarist” vet training program. She congratulated Dr. Yin and spoke highly of her: “In Chinese society, the responsibility and role of vets have transformed from animal illness service providers to animal welfare advocates. I’m so glad to see the transformation that has been taking place in vet training programs since 2009.”
“Dr. Yin is a representative of outstanding young vets. Her inner goodness inspires her diligence. As a previous trainee and now the vice leader of this training project, Dr. Yin has invested a lot of energy into promoting the development of Chinese ‘animal welfarist’ vet. The award Yin received witnessed the growth of Chinese young ‘animal welfarist vets. Much to our delight, her excellence is recognized internationally.”
Information and photos from China.com: http://money.china.com/stock/ztyj/201805/21/519696.html?qq-pf-to=pcqq.c2c.
Translated by Victor Du and edited by Riley @ Animal Dialogue
