Capitol Report
by Thomas Hagerty, DVM
The Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association has been working on a number of different fronts in this session of the Minnesota Legislature this year. The most challenging issue is the animal chiropractic legislation. A local chiropractic college appeared to be the only entity involved at first. More recently, the Minnesota Chiropractic Association has become involved in lobbying legislators to support chiropractors ability to perform procedures on animals without a referral from a veterinarian and without veterinary supervision. The MVMA has also contacted its members and legislators outlining its concerns about chiropractic involvement without referral. Of the 50 states only 14 states have provisions in their statutes that address animal chiropractic and that require the procedures to be carried out by a veterinarian trained in animal chiropractic or by a chiropractor who has been trained in animal chiropractic and is working on animals either under the supervision of a veterinarian or upon referral by a veterinarian.
Legislation, SF 3165 and HF 3584, authored by Senator Gary Kubly (DFL- Granite Falls), and Representative Lyle Koenen, (DFL- Clara City) has been heard in the House and Senate Agriculture committees and in the House Ag. Finance committee and Senate Health committees. These bills have passed out of the Ag. committees with significant passing votes. In the House Finance and Senate Health committees the bills passed with only a one vote margin. However, the Senate Finance Committee was able to amend the bill to require a veterinary referral before an animal chiropractor can treat an animal patient.
These are no doubt controversial bills. The MVMA has been lobbying hard to make the legislators aware of the concerns veterinarians have for the welfare of the animal and the probability of missed diagnosis if a veterinarian is not involved. A number of veterinarians have testified at these committee meetings. Drs. Pierce Fleming, Kate An Hunter, Stan Held, Robert Washabau, Teresa Hershey and Tom Hagerty have all furnished expert testimony on the concern of zoonotic disease, internal and external parasites, infectious and communicable diseases, animal restraint and physical danger to the client as well as the chiropractor.
In the last 2007 session of the Minnesota legislature Senator Kubly and Representative Koenen authored the "tooth floating" bills that went as far as conference committee but then became the basis for forming the Animal Husbandry Working Group. This 10 member appointed group met 4 times over the fall and early winter. Four of the members were Minnesota licensed practicing veterinarians.
Animal chiropractic was one of the issues discussed by the group along with equine tooth floating, animal physical rehabilitation, animal massage, and artificial insemination in the equine and canine.The working group recommended that chiropractors have their clients obtain a referral from a veterinarian or engage in a timely post-service communication with a veterinarian who is familiar with the patient. Neither of the current bills fully addresses this recommendation of the working group. The bills only require that the chiropractor make treatment notes and records available to the patients owner upon request and must communicate their findings and treatment plan with the referring veterinarian, or the animals veterinarian if the animal has not been referred by a veterinarian.
There was official dissent among the working group members on this recommendation by those who felt that a referral should be required by a veterinarian before any chiropractic services could be performed. The authors of these bills did not include that provision. As this is written your lobbying team is contacting all 201 legislators to help them understand the significance of the MVMA's concern and to ask their support to defeat these proposals. We appreciate the efforts of all the MVMA members who have contacted their senator and representative and ask those of you who have not done so to make that contact today. Legislators like to hear from their constituents on these issues and your contact can have an important effect on their decision-making.
Several of the other legislative issues that the MVMA has been tracking have not moved very far unlike the animal chiropractic bill. But these other issues; tooth floating, puppy mills, etc. are not going away, however, but are likely waiting to see how animal chiropractic fares. Please feel free to contact Dr. Tom Hagerty at the MVMA office (651-645-7533) if you have any questions about MVMA legislative activities.
Registered MVMA Lobbyists consist of volunteer and staff lobbyists, as well as paid lobbyists. You may contact our volunteer and staff lobbyists with any legislative concerns. Please contact:
We also use a professional lobbying
firm, Lockridge, Grindal, and Nauen.
The Key Contact Network is vital to the success of VET PAC. The network consists of MVMA members who have volunteered to contact other veterinarians in their area to ask for financial support for VET PAC. Donations received are used to support candidates who express interest in supporting veterinary medicine and animal agriculture. With redistricting and many new candidates, the MVMA Key Contact Network will be completely revised. The goal is to have one or more veterinarians assigned to each legislator and serve as a voice of veterinary medicine to the state senator and or representative. Does the KCN pay off? A legislator is much more sensitive to the views of constituents than lobbyists. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Key Contact Network, please contact Tom Hagerty at tshagerty@embarqmail.com.
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