Per the AVMA website, the Controlled Substances Act “makes it illegal for veterinarians to take and use controlled substances outside of the locations where they are registered, often their clinics or homes.”
“This means that it is illegal for veterinarians to carry and use vital medications for pain management, anesthesia and euthanasia on farms, in house calls, in veterinary mobile clinics, or ambulatory response situations.
Veterinarians must be able to legally carry and use controlled substances for the health and welfare of the nation’s animals, to safeguard public safety and to protect the nation’s food supply.
We encourage you to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1528), which would amend the CSA that currently prohibits veterinarians from transporting controlled substances to treat their animal patients outside of their registered locations.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which enforces the law, has informed organized veterinary medicine that without a statutory change, veterinarians are in violation of the CSA and cannot legally provide complete veterinary care. The DEA has already notified some veterinarians in California and Washington State that they are in violation of this law.
The practice of veterinary medicine requires veterinarians to be able to treat their animal patients in a variety of settings, such as in:
- rural areas – for the care of large animals where it is often not feasible, practical or possible for owners to bring livestock (i.e., cows, pigs, horses, sheep, and goats) into a veterinary hospital or clinic;
- “house call” services or mobile clinics – where veterinarians offer a variety of veterinary services for their patients or in the communities;
- research and disease control activities – where it may be necessary to conduct research away from the veterinarian’s principal place of business;
- emergency response situations – where injured animals must be cared for onsite; and
- the removal or transfer of dangerous wildlife (e.g. bears, cougars) or to rescue trapped wildlife (e.g. deer trapped in a fence).”
The AVMA website provides an easy to use “Tell Congress” system allowing supporters of the bill to email their own representatives in Congress (though the wording is specifically for veterinarians, it can easily be changed). Click Here to use the AVMA system to notify your Representatives in Congress.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
What’s in Your Pet’s Food?
Is your dog or cat eating risk ingredients? Chinese imports? Petsumer Report tells the ‘rest of the story’ on over 2500 cat foods, dog foods, and pet treats. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. www.PetsumerReport.com
2013 List
Susan’s List of trusted pet foods. Click Here
Have you read Buyer Beware? Click Here
Cooking for pets made easy, Dinner PAWsible
Find Healthy Pet Foods in Your Area Click Here
Pamela C
May 1, 2013 at 11:24 am
DONE. Tying the hands of Vets to deny Animals Medical Care is a regulation nightmare, an abusive use of state power. Please everyone send your support to your Congressperson, well, if they are “people”. Some of mine aren’t human.
dmiller
May 1, 2013 at 12:21 pm
Needs a well publicized case where following the law actually does put the public at risk.
Jessica
May 1, 2013 at 12:28 pm
I emailed all the congress people in my district to let them know my anger over the bill they passed. Hopefully something can be done to reverse this bill!!
Buggs
May 1, 2013 at 12:58 pm
THANK YOU for reporting on this. I have drafted up an email and passing this article on. This is critical for our pets and animals in general! And, count on this at some point affecting human medicine as well. If they are implementing this for vets, you can bet they will at some point do similarly for people, using “controlling drug abuse” as the reason. This is simply a glimpse of what we will see down the line for humans.
Cindy
May 1, 2013 at 3:26 pm
This is just crazy!
I am already having trouble buying antihistamine for a horse that has an ongoing issue that flares up 2 or 3 times a year. You are now supposed to take the animal there and have them administer the antihistamine. In the past they just sold us a bottle and we gave it ourselves. Bottle of antihistamine = $30, driving to town with truck and trailer every day for a week a few times a year plus paying the vet to administer it and examine the animal = probably at least $100 a trip – can’t and won’t do that.
Jo Singer
May 1, 2013 at 5:27 pm
Can you imagine having to bring a colicky or lame horse to an Equine hospital? I have also written about this for Petside http://www.petside.com/article/mobile-vets-under-scrutiny and talked with several vets who actually didn’t even know this law existed and thanked me for informing them.
House call vet visits for cats are incredible helpful and I would hate to see mobile vets have their hands tied with this archaic law. Thanks for posting this.
Ellie
May 1, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Incredible stupidity.
Larry Clive
May 1, 2013 at 6:11 pm
The absolute stupidity of politicians has never been in doubt. Hopefully, one good court case will throw this in the trash pail of both unreasonable and / or unconstitutionality as being an unreasonable restriction of proper medical care. The nature of the patient is irrelevant.
The other issue here is, Susan, did you get the wording right ? My reading of YOUR article make the issue one of: Vets cannot “take” and “use” drugs outside of their practice location should have been stated: “for their patients”. Not for themselves ! :-))))))))
Linda Pruitt
May 1, 2013 at 9:41 pm
Email sent, this is the dumbest law I have ever read about.
darlene fox
May 14, 2013 at 3:57 pm
forgive me if i am stupid but i don’t understand how this law can affect the entire nation yet
animal cruelty be it legal or a misdemeanor or a felony is up to individual states.
likewise, the same goes for the method of euthanization of impunded animals… gas chamber, heart stick, lethal injection or otherwise is up to each individual state.
i believe the same goes for horse slaughter and selling the meat to other countries.
banning steel jaw traps is dealt with state by state.
why can’t it be a national law that unless one has a breeders license, it is illegal to let their pet reproduce?
why is it the important things that would be beneficial to animals, the nation won’t touch? they leave it up to individual states. on the other hand, the nation seems to be ready to jump on laws that are not beneficial to animals such as this one.
if anything at all, it is beyond me how such a ridiculous law could even get passed. we need to vote the idiot politicians out but i’m afraid we will just end up with new idiot politicians in. seems like most of them are either criminals, or getting their palms greased by criminals (be it a single person or a major business).
policticians are getting so crooked that they are starting to make even the lawyers look halfway decent.
Ameila
June 14, 2013 at 12:42 pm
Thanks for this post I hope that the word is spread and there is a lot of response to this problem for Veterinarians. The work they do outside of their clinics at times can be timely and lifesaving.
http://www.beechmontpethospital.com/