MVMA Sets Legislative Agenda for 2008
The MVMA Governmental Affairs Committee has 75 members representing most, if not all, facets of veterinary medicine and all geographic regions of the state. The committee meets twice a year to discuss the issues of the profession that involve public policy, to gather input from the members of the association and develop a recommendation on the position of the association on the issues. This is presented to the MVMA Executive Board for their consideration. The Executive Board adopted the following recommendations of the committee at its December 13, 2007 meeting:
The MVMA's positions include the following:
- We oppose breed specific legislation and support continued enforcement of current laws that adequately address dangerous dogs.
- Starting from the premise that veterinarians are committed to the welfare of the animal. Concerning breeder's legislation, we support a more targeted approach that identifies and defines certain (problem) breeder operations. There needs to be consistent and uniform inspections, investigations (based on complaints), and enforcement mechanisms. No statewide licensing requirement is needed. Though we prefer current local control and enforcement, if the Board of Animal Health is identified as overseeing agency of breeder operations there needs to be accompanying and immediate funding provided by the state. We also support further strengthening of the state's Pet Lemon Law to address problem breeder operations.
- We support strengthening and not further weakening of the Veterinary Practice Act. The VPA was designed to ensure the proper welfare and care of animals. Consequently, we are suspect of efforts to totally remove certain services and procedures from the VPA. We oppose efforts that allow non-veterinarians to own veterinary practices. We support direct supervision of non-veterinarians in performing equine tooth floating, as well as direct supervision of invasive acupuncture. We support indirect supervision of non-veterinarians in performing physical therapy and massage. We further support indirect veterinarian supervision of licensed chiropractors for animal chiropractic services after attaining appropriate training and education as determined by both the chiropractic and veterinary medical boards.
- We support legislation that creates incentives to address the need for large animal (food animal) veterinarians in underserved areas of Minnesota, including support of a loan forgiveness program. We continue to support the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine's budget and bonding requests at the Minnesota state legislature.
- It is important for the Board of Animal Health and the Board of Veterinary Medicine to remain independent.
Please contact Dr. Tom Hagerty (tshagerty@embarqmail.com) or call the MVMA office 651-645-7533 if you have any questions regarding these positions.
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