Animal Healthcare Rights Quietly Being Stripped Away [9:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On Tuesday, October 24th, my husband Donnie stopped off at a local all natural dog food supply store, K9 Kitchen, to pick up some more meat and treats for our dog Shadrach. Donnie said that the owner and employees in this small, friendly store were in an uproar over a recent article in the Albuquerque Journal entitled “Rubbed the Wrong Way” by Isabel Sanchez. The article made the front page so it is a very important piece of news to everyone who either has animals or works in the industry.
The NM Board of Veterinary Medicine would, it appears, like for the general public to not know what they can do about stopping what they hope to pass: that no alternative animal health care practitioner be allowed to work on an animal without a licensed veterinarian present.

My reaction was nearly the same as most who take a more natural approach to their own health care and that of their animals: absolutely NO WAY this should pass. It’s a blatant attempt to end alternative health care, because who in their right minds would want to pay both the practitioner AND a veterinarian??

The only ones who stand to gain from this arrangement are the veterinarians. Certainly not the patients nor the practitioners and most definitely the animal owners will not benefit with more expenditure and hassle to set up appointments. My question is why should or how can traditional veterinarians who are not trained in these natural modalities be the ones who determine whether or not I can choose the alternative care I prefer for my own animals without one of them present?? Why in the world would I need an untrained veterinarian present to monitor my natural pet health care practitioner? Is this still America?

If so, why would my right to choose a natural animal health practitioner without having a veterinarian present not be MY right? I feel very much as though my Constitutional Rights are just being taken away not even erroded. Just taken to profit the medical profession. Some holistic veterinarians are trained to some degree in some of these modalities but they are very few and far between in NM. Why increase the price for the owners of these animals? For greed? I can’t see what else it could be. I for one choose 95% of the time alternative care over traditional care for myself and that should be my right. I have the right to choose that for my own health care without a medical doctor present so why not the same choice for the health care of my animals?

I’m incensed that this is even being considered by a board I feel has not only no right whatsoever to determine MY choices for MY animals, but they certainly aren’t qualified to determine the NATURAL health care for animals when they learn little to nothing on nutrition and preventive care. They are in the business of acute care and treatment. Natural and alternative modalities focus on working with the body of the animal to prevent illness and disease. Again I question the validity of a move like this on the part of this board. I am opposed to this being passed into law for all of the reasons stated and purely for the fact that I am an American and this is a violation of my Constitutional Rights.

As always, have a pawsitively tail waggin’ month!

Documents to download:

Letter from Dr. Sherry
Letter to NM Vet Board