This week, Ellen Kessler, who was recently appointed to the State Board of Veterinary Medicine posted on her personal social media account that, “4-H clubs teach children that animal lives don’t matter.” Kessler is an outspoken vegan and advocate for others to do the same.

As a member of the Colorado Board of Veterinary Medicine, this appointee will be asked to guide and enforce professional standards for veterinary practitioners. She’ll also be tasked with making, amending, and adopting reasonable rules that govern the conduct of veterinarians, including veterinarians who serve the state’s many large animal and food animal clients.

The members of the state board are given the responsibility of interpreting the Veterinary practice law onto many specific cases in a fair and equitable manner that is in keeping with the intention of the law. Such interpretation is very much at the mercy of the individual board member’s ability or inability to remove their own personal bias or agenda from the equation. The long-established and science-based practices of a medical profession should not be placed on the whim of one individual with a deeply engrained political belief. Veterinarians have dedicated decades of their lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to establish their professional career and this gives one person with a personal agenda the power to dismantle their career and reputation permanently.

Due to Kessler’s previous statements that Coloradoans ought to become vegans, I do not believe she will be able to reasonably carry out the great responsibility of overseeing the veterinarians so vital to the agriculture industry. This conflict of interest could be disastrous, even driving desperately needed rural practitioners out of the state. With the state already experiencing a shortage of such practitioners, this would be a blow to the agriculture industry and the people who depend upon it.

We respectfully request that this grave conflict of interest be given consideration prior to Kessler’s confirmation hearing during the upcoming legislative sessions.

Supporting Colorado’s agriculture industry has never been more important.