Paper short abstract:

Veterinary medicine is embedded in complex and ambivalent human-animal relationships. This talk explores the work of death in different veterinary worlds, focusing on their relationships and boundaries. It identifies "good" killing as a professional norm.

Paper long abstract:

Veterinary medicine's embeddedness in the complex and often conflicted human-animal relationship presents the profession with a multi-contextuality and a significant challenge. The purpose of this talk is to explore this complexity by analyzing a central activity within the veterinary profession: the killing of animals. Veterinary practice involves not only curing and caring, but also the task of ending an animal's life. It involves a variety of methods, technologies, and ethical considerations. This diversity is evident in different veterinary fields, where different forms of killing intersect and diverge.

Using the social world-arena mapping of situational analysis (Clarke et al. 2018), it examines the interconnections and boundaries between three key practices (euthanasia, slaughter, and termination) and three veterinary worlds (companion animals, livestock, and laboratory animals). Drawing on a dataset of 17 semi-structured interviews with veterinarians from different fields in Germany, as well as relevant documents, this research illuminates the multifaceted realities of veterinary killing.

By analyzing the complex ecology of humans, animals, and killing practices, the professional pursuit of "good" killing emerges as a boundary object across worlds. It becomes a fixed yet flexible normative anchor for a shared professional identity.

Ultimately, this research underscores the need for comparative and contextual analyses to deepen our understanding of the meaning of these practices in veterinary medicine and their implications for veterinary professionalism.