The Society was originally formed in December 1990 by George Tribe. At that time the British Association of Homoeopathic Veterinary Surgeons was making the second of two successive bids to be granted the status of a Specialist Division within the BVA. George was on BVA Council at the time, and conceived the idea of the BVVS on the spot as an entertaining diversionary tactic. Within 24 hours he had the necessary hundred members signed up, and he communicated his intentions to the Chair. The BAHVS was unsuccessful in its application - whether this was cause and effect or merely coincidental is perhaps for others to determine!
After that the Society languished somewhat, and George didn't even keep a list of the original members. However, in the early months of 2003 a rash of pro-homoeopathy letters and articles appeared in veterinary publications, including Veterinary Review and Veterinary Times. Where an opposing view was put forward, this nearly always included the lily-livered cop-out of 'keeping an open mind', and a call for more scarce funding resources to be expended in research into the subject. [Ooh, better modify that - more recently letters have apppeared which demonstrate quite distressing closed-mindedness. Sasha Farr's statement (Veterinary Times, 2nd June 2003, p. 8) "The ludicrous idea that homoeopathy plays a part in canine vaccination makes me quite ill" was a particular gem.]
It was therefore concluded that it was time for the BVVS to be resurrected, so here it is. All colleagues who can tell the difference between rational medicine and a magic spell are welcome. Anyone who can advance a plausible case that they were one of the original 1990 members will be awarded the accolade of 'Founder Member'.
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