Bad News, with a Side of Good

Well, the Deputy Secretary didn’t listen to us any better than the Board of Veterinary Medicine did – but the fight is not over! The regulations we opposed regarding student practice before the fourth year were just issued in final form, but there is a provision by which they can be put on hold and a new comment period started if at least 25 people object. Please go to Town Hall at http://townhall.virginia.gov/L/Comments.cfm?StageID=7465 and state your objection to the regulations in their current form. It is critically important that you ask for a new comment period, as that is the only thing which will interrupt this process. (Please note that links do not always work in Change.org. If the entire url is not underlined it will not work, and you will have to copy it and paste it in your browser.) As annoying as it is to have to keep stating the obvious to people who should know better, we simply have no choice. We cannot allow regulations which will permit students to practice on our animals as early as their first year of vet school without adding the safeguard that this requires our informed consent. In case it helps you with your comments, here’s what I said: I object strongly to approval of these regulations without a requirement for owner consent for student performance of any task which ordinarily requires licensure. The public was ignored in the last comment period. Out of 94 comments, 74 said clearly that they were opposed unless full consent was required for all student practice. 28 explicitly said that a sign in the office saying “students working here” is unacceptable. I request that the process begin again, with another comment period. And this time, pay attention to the public! These are OUR animals you are planning to let students treat. Thanks for your support. As always, I welcome your comments: LeeHenkel01@gmail.com