The increased importance of animal pain to the practice of veterinary medicine parallels a similar trend in human medicine. Whereas attitudes of human health care providers have been shown to affect management of pain in people, attitudes of veterinary personnel towards pain management in animals have not been elucidated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence that animal factors and level of professional veterinary medical training have on attitudes towards pain management in animals. An exploratory, descriptive survey was distributed to students in the College of Veterinary Medicine ( 540), clinical faculty ( 50), house officers ( 25), and support staff ( 100) in the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital. The survey consisted of 23 different questions (including demographic, descriptive, and case-based questions). Out of 720 surveys distributed, 357 were completed and returned consisting of 31 faculty, 29 staff, 18 house officers, and 279 students. If percent responses appeared to be different between groups, comparisons between groups were made using Kruskal-Wallis one way ANOVA for data not normally distributed. P < 0.05 was considered significant. A high degree of concordance existed amongst survey participants regarding overall importance of treating pain in animals. The extent to which pain should be alleviated and animal factors, such as breed, behavior, and clinical circumstances accounted for much of the discordance (some which was significant) between survey groups. Interestingly, senior veterinary students were occasionally less likely (P < 0.05) to treat for pain than sophomore or junior veterinary students. The diversity of opinions regarding the necessity or desirability of treating pain in animals, the apparent decrease in the likelihood of senior veterinary students to treat an animal for pain under certain circumstances, and evidence of knowledge deficits regarding analgesic therapy from all groups contribute to the likelihood that pain in animals will not be consistently recognized and appropriately treated.
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