THE CHANGING FUNCTION OF THE VETERINARIAN: AN INDICATOR OF URBANIZATION
VETERİNERİN DEĞİŞEN İŞLEVİ: BİR KENTLEŞME GÖSTERGESİ

Author : Sinan ÇAYA
Number of pages : 322-350

Abstract

The professional activity of the typical veterinary-surgeon displays striking contrast depending on the country or the location involved. In a feudal-structured (agrarian) country or in the rural regions of any given country; this profession’s subjects are comprised of farm animals (cattle, sheep, horses, donkeys, poultry). Epidemics like glanders, anthrax, rash (hoof-and-mouth disease), contemporarily-emerged “mad-cow sickness”, chicken diseases are the common basic problems he tackles. In the city, those “subjects” are replaced by pets. Some selected reminiscences of a well-known Scottish veterinary surgeon are inserted into this article for purposes of “demonstration”. Turkey is a country undergoing fast social changes in the direction of urbanization. Especially in recent years; the percentage of the rural population has been shrinking steadily, while the percentage of the population in cities has been growing. The application of the profession of the veterinary surgeon has been undergoing enormous changes, accordingly. The veterinary surgeon used to care for the farm animals, in the provincial areas and the countryside. Nowadays; his new counterpart deals with the treatment of cats and house-dogs and even other pets, within the city centers. This new trend in the profession is just one of the many indicators of the radical social changes the country is going through.

Keywords

Veterinarian; urbanization; Turkey; rural regions; farm animals; pets.

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