AVMA strengthens position against forced molts

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

PHILADELPHIA–The American Veterinary Medical Association
house of delegates on July 28, 2004 adopted a resolution against
forced molting that resolves one of the major issues between the AVMA
and the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights.
On June 21, AVAR co-sponsored a full-page ad in the New York
Times asking “Has anyone betrayed more animals than the American
Veterinary Medical Association?’
Similar to an ad published in April in ANIMAL PEOPLE by the
Coalition for Nonviolent Food, the New York Times ad targeted the
AVMA positions on forced molting, gestation crates for pregnant
sows, veal crating, and “the inexplicable retention of Dr. Gregg
Cutler on the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee,” explained AVAR vice
president Holly Cheever, “despite the fact that he was shown in
three separate affidavits, including his own sworn deposition, to
have ordered the mass slaughter of 30,000 chickens in California by
throwing them alive into a wood chipper.”
Furious over the ad, AVMA executive vice president Bruce
Little on July 21 barred the Association of Veterinarians for Animal
Rights from tabling at a booth it had already reserved and paid for
during the five-day AVMA annual conference, July 24-28. This was
reported in the July/August 2004 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE, which
went to press while the conference itself was just underway.

On July 23 the AVMA house of delegates installed new
president Bonnie V. Beaver, DVM, a longtime member of the Texas A&M
University veterinary faculty, past president of the American
College of Veterinary Behaviorists (1992-1996), and currently the
ACVB executive director.
Beaver told the assembled delegates that the time has come
for the AVMA to show leadership on animal welfare issues, as
expected by the public, and that veterinarians must not allow animal
use industry convention to taint their judgement of animal
well-being. Beaver asked the AVMA to establish a Division of Animal
Welfare.
AVAR had submitted a resolution against forced molting to the
house of delegates that reportedly paralleled the position of the
Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, but the delegates instead
accepted a resolution offered by the American Association of Avian
Pathologists.
The AVMA policy on forced molts to induce hens to begin a new
egg-laying cycle formerly stated that “Intermittant feeding or diets
of low nutrient density are recommended rather than total food
withdrawal.” As amended, the policy states, “Neither water nor
food should be withdrawn.”