Policy Brief OUTLINE Final
pdf
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School
University Of Arizona *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
160D
Subject
Medicine
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
Pages
5
Uploaded by ColonelRedPanda1883
Policy Brief OUTLINE TEMPLATE •
Topic:
Select a topic from the approved Policy Brief Topics list o
Allowing surgical alteration of pets (e.g., declawing, ear cropping, tail cropping, spay, neuter) •
Title:
A good title quickly and memorably communicates the contents of the brief
’s content.
o
Use the internet to lookup some real Policy Briefs to get a sense of this genre of writing and example titles. o
Find compelling image or graphic o
Possible title idea 1: Surgical Alterations and Their Outcomes o
Possible title idea 2: Cosmetic Alterations are Lifetime Alterations •
Introduction & Background: This section frames the problem. It communicates the importance of the problem and aims to convince the reader of the necessity of policy reevaluation. It includes these sub-
sections:
o
Problem statement: Surgical alternations to pets are used primarily to alter behavior or fall in line with an aesthetic. These alternations can be harmful to the animal, potentially creating new behavioral problems or leaving the animal in pain. o
Scope of the Problem:
Surgical alterations are done nearly daily in most developed countries. Many vets push for spaying and neutering your animals and clubs like the American Kennel Club have regulations on purebreds to have them fit a certain look. o
Context of the problem:
Some surgical alternatives have existed since the Greek and Roman Empires, though they were less for looks at that time. Tail docking was believed to stop rabies and ear cropping prevent injury to the dog’s ear from other advisories, or decrease ear infec
tions.
o
Current policy
:
As it currently stands in the United States there are no policies on surgical alterations, specifically those that are aesthetic. There are, however, a few states that require that they be performed by trained veterinarians. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
o
Importance
:
As it currently stands there are no overarching policies, meaning that these types of surgeries are not heavily regulated. Harmful surgeries are not being regulated beyond having a professional do them. o
*Important! For the Introduction & Background section of you Policy Brief, you must use at least 1 reliable source of some kind (e.g., credible website, newspaper, academic journal article, textbook). No need to provide the PDFs of these sources, just list them in the References.
•
Policy Options:
This section should give an objective, fair, and accurate description of different perspectives on the problem. It should describe the position of different stakeholders (e.g., parents, elderly, college students, professional athletes, vaccine researchers, conservationists, ethicists, farmers, business owners, animal activists, sustainable development advocates, etc.). An elected official needs to consider the different perspectives of their constituents. Organize this section into these sub-sections: o
PRO- Maintain the current policy ▪
Stakeholder-Describe a constituent group that is in favor of the current policy ▪
Breeders and pet owners ▪
Argument-Why are they in favor of the current policy? ▪
For current policy as it allows them to uphold a breed standard and/or allows them to avoid problem behaviors. ▪
Evidence-What evidence supports their argument to maintain the current policy? Find a reliable source (specifically a scholarly peer-reviewed publication) and download the PDF. Highlight key information and paraphrase it. (You will provide the highlighted PDF in the Appendices.) ▪
Behavioral issues can cause an owner to surrender or put down an animal as the behavioral issues are too much are an owner to handle ▪
Cosmetic procedures do not cause consistent pain and prevent problems such as happy tail and can help prevent ear infections o
CON- Change the current policy
▪
Stakeholder-Describe a constituent group that is against the current policy. ▪
Veterinarians and behavioralists are a large group that is against surgical operations regarding cosmetics ▪
Argument-Why are they against the current policy? ▪
Against the current policy as it harms the animals. ▪
Evidence-What evidence supports their argument to change the current policy? Find a reliable source (peer-reviewed publication) and download the PDF. Highlight key information and paraphrase it. (You will provide the highlighted PDF in the Appendices.) ▪
Behavioral issues can be caused by procedures, procedures are stressors meaning that they can cause behavioral issues at home such as fear of a carrier or lick at the procedure site ▪
Cropped ears can cause problems with infections and the dog could be in pain for a period of time, the same goes for tail docking o
*Important! For the Policy Options section of you Policy Brief, you MUST use 2 scholarly peer-reviewed
sources (at least 1 for Pro and 1 for Con)
•
Conclusion & Policy Recommendations:
In this section, briefly summarize the problem and then your recommendations. Be persuasive, but not biased! Give your best argument, not your feelings. How would a lawyer make a closing argument? o
Discuss if one or both positions are persuasive and why o
Veterinarians and behavioralists have a leg up in this debate as they are trained professionals with a better idea as to how detrimental certain procedures can be. o
Then give your recommendation for specific policy actions
. Give your argument why this is the best course of action. o
Best course of action is to regulate or outright bad cosmetic surgeries. Ear cropping and tail docking can be beneficial for working animals, such as livestock dogs and herders, and laws should reflect that. But pets, as in animals that live in a home, should not have cosmetic surgical alterations done to uphold a breed standard. o
For your Outline, provide some preliminary ideas of proposed policy actions and justification. o
When you write the Report, you can fully develop one or more of your ideas. •
References: This is a list of sources you consulted and are referred to in the brief. These must be cited following APA reference guidelines. They must be reliable sources, usually peer-reviewed publications. o
For the Introduction & Background section of you Policy Brief, you may use any kind of reliable source (e.g., website, newspaper, academic journal article, textbook). o
For the Policy Options section of you Policy Brief, you MUST use scholarly peer-reviewed sources
(at least 1 for Pro, and 1 for Con) o
Tools to help you format the references in APA style, as well as examples of APA References and in-text-citations can be found in the in the course D2L site (see APA style tools
) and the Policy Brief Instructions
.
Intro
Hohenhaus, A. (2020, December 22). Cosmetic surgeries in dogs
. The Animal Medical Center. https://www.amcny.org/blog/2017/06/14/cosmetic-surgeries-dogs/ Siev, A. (2022). Non-therapeutic procedures for Companion Animals
. Animal Law Legal Center. https://www.animallaw.info/intro/non-therapeutic-procedures-companion-animals Con
Bain, M. (2020, July 6). Surgical and behavioral relationships with welfare
. Frontiers. Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00519/full Pro
Texas A&M University. (2010, November 4). Cosmetic procedures
. VMBS News. https://vetmed.tamu.edu/news/pet-talk/cosmetic-procedures/ Examples of APA Reference Format:
Scholarly peer-reviewed article - Rault, J. (2019). Be kind to others: Prosocial behaviours and their implications for animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science,
210
, 113-123.
Reliable book –
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Steklis, H.D. and Steklis, N.G. (2020). Human-Animal Interrelationships (2
nd
digital ed.)
. Kendall-Hunt Publishing Company. Reliable website -
Animal Welfare Act. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2019, from https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/SA_AWA Examples of APA In-Text-Citation Format: “Drs. Steklis summarized the archaeological evidence and suggested that the beginning of the human-
dog mutualism began about 40,000 BP (Steklis & Steklis, 2018).” “A recent report showed that 300 mice suffered tail injuries in one year (Doolittle, 2015).”
“According to Dr. Doolittle (2015) 300 mice suffered tail injuries in one year.”
•
Appendices:
Extra information as needed for further support. In this section list what you are providing as separate files (such as the 2 PDFs of the scholarly peer reviewed sources you used). This way your congressional representative can have the option of reviewing the evidence if they wish. Cosmetic Procedures from Texas A&M University: Cosmetic Procedures For Pets _ Pet Talk _ VMBS News.pdf Cosmetic Surgeries in Dogs from The Animal Medical Center
Non-therapeutic Procedures for Companion Animals from Animal Law Legal Center
Surgical and Behavioral Relationship with Welfare from Frontiers: fvets-07-00519.pdf •
NOTES- How I used the feedback from writing experts (my TA, Think Tank, etc): In this section describe how you utilized any writing experts. Please note how you used the your TA
’s feedback in your one-on-one Zoom meeting or from comments on your returned graded assignment. o
We have yet to get any graded assignments for this project so I have been unable to use any comments from such.
o
I have not had a need yet to contact a TA or use Think Tank as this is the first assignment and it is simply getting ideas down on a page,
•
NOTES- How I used writing tools: In this section list any use of writing tools.
You might have employed writing aids such as spell and grammar checkers, or generative writing AI applications like ChatGPT. To avoid plagiarism, the use of AI must be properly documented and credited. For example, text generated using ChatGPT-
3 should include a citation such as: “Chat
-GPT-3. (YYYY, Month DD of query). [Text of your query.] Generated using OpenAI. https://chat.openai.com/”. Material generated using other tools should follow a similar cit
ation convention. Any assignment found to have been plagiarized or failed to cite AI tools may receive a zero and/or be reported for academic misconduct.
o
List any use of generative AI tools o
No intention of using AI tools o
Share your experiences with writing tools, noting their advantages or any challenges they presented. o
Grammarly to help primarily with spelling. It also suggests punctuation marks are tried to revise phrasing when unnecessary.