Recently, the American Association of Equine Practitioners issued a set of recommendations covering the best use practices and ethical guidelines for radiographs at public horse auctions, including Thoroughbred auctions.
The recommendations, made by the AAEP’s Public Auction Task Force stress the importance of buyers retaining a veterinarian for their own protection as well as how veterinarians should deal with possible conflicts of interest.
The AAEP Public Auction Task Force is committed to making public horse auctions as ethical and open as they can. For that reason, the association makes recommendations on how these goals can be achieved.
“The Thoroughbred industry is trying to improve the quality and the level of ethical behavior on the part of all players: Buyers, sellers and the sales companies,” said Dr. Jeff Berk, an Ocala veterinarian and member of the AAEP Public Auction Task Force.
The AAEP was established in 1954 with the idea of demanding excellence from its members, while always striving to improve the health and welfare of the horse. With nearly 10,000 members, the AAEP has grown to be an influential voice in the equine world.
“When we come up with those recommendations we meet with all the major sales companies and discuss how best the recommendations can be implemented,” Berk said. “The AAEP has no real enforcement power, but the sales companies do, so it’s important to have them on board.”
A meeting on the radiograph recommendations has been scheduled and will include representatives from Ocala Breeders’ Sales, Fasig-Tipton, Keeneland, Barrett’s, the National Association for Two-year-old Consignors, TOBA and the CBA.
In the latest round of recommendations the group also cautions all parties involved in a prospective sale on relying too heavily on radiograph reports composed by the sellers’ veterinarian. Not only do buyers run the risk of receiving inaccurate information, but the seller may also be at greater risk of being accused of misrepresentation. With already prepared radiograph reports the veterinarian may also not have the opportunity to properly give their opinion of the findings.
Veterinarians are reminded to report all findings on a radiographic image to both sellers and buyers. Special attention should be paid to areas where problems often occur. These areas should be addressed always even if there is no problem.
Also, if a veterinarian has an ownership interest in a horse, the veterinarian should avoid assessing that same horse for potential buyers. This includes endoscopic exams as well as radiograph reports.
“I occasionally have an ownership interest in a horse. If one of my clients is interested in that horse, I will inform them of that and tell them they may want to use another veterinarian for this horse because I own part of it,” Berk said. “A lot of these things are somewhat common sense, but people buyers and sellers need to be made aware of the rights and privileges they have.”
The recommendations are also meant to help those who are new to the public auction.
“When you’re new at something you should have a resource available that will help you get comfortable with the auction process and what to avoid so the experience does not become a sour one,” Berk said.
The recommendation makes special note to remind all parties that altering a radiograph is unethical and fraudulent and should never occur. This recommendation also applies to deleting the findings of other veterinarians so the reports can be used to misrepresent a horse up for auction.
Finally, any veterinarian conducting a radiograph exam must take extra care to produce quality radiographs. Special attention should be paid to proper position, angle and exposure. Good radiographs are essential for making accurate and reliable reports.
“We’re looking for some uniformity so we can improve buyer confidence,” Berk said. “It’s the only way to assure the buyers that the products that they are buying are good products and everyone is acting in good faith.”
The task force recommendations don’t necessarily focus on widespread problems, but rather on area where abuses may occur.
“The vast majority of people at the sales are just trying to do the right thing, but we have to address the minority that is not,” Berk said. “We have to make it more difficult for those few individual that want to take advantage of someone.”
In the past AAEP recommendations have been used to establish enforceable rules set by sales companies. Most recently, several medication rules were adopted by all the major sales companies. Those rules borrowed heavily from the AAEP recommendations.
In 2007, Ocala Breeders’ Sales was the first to adopt a ban on the use of exogenous steroids within 45 days of a sale and has remedies to void sales if steroids test come up positive. Other sales companies soon followed with their own rules.
They also adopted other rules banning or limiting other medications and procedures.
Berk expects much the same process to occur with these new recommendations.
“We are looking for a balance. You can achieve that balance when you have everyone at the table talking about it,” he said. “It has to be the same playing field for everybody.”
The process and rules should be exacting, given the nature of dealing with animals.
“Horses are living, breathing things. They are not like cars. Unfortunately, even under the best of circumstances, things can go wrong,” he said. “You want people going into that environment with the knowledge that someone is looking out for them. There’s nothing worse that someone feeling like they’ve been taking advantage of.”
