Letter to the editor
Editor,
As veterinarians who have spent our careers devoted to the health and welfare of pets and livestock in rural Colorado communities, we are alarmed at Proposition 129 on this November’s Colorado election ballot.
This proposition would create an unnecessary and potentially dangerous new role called a Veterinary Professional Associate (VPA) – a sort of “quasi-veterinarian” with much less training and experience than actual Doctors of Veterinary Medicine.
Under Proposition 129, a VPA’s training would be mostly online with minimal hands-on instruction, yet these individuals would be allowed to diagnose illness and perform surgery, among other critical tasks. There’s a reason this job does not exist anywhere in the United States – it’s a bad idea.
Some proponents of the VPA have suggested this new position would help to alleviate shortages of veterinarians serving livestock and other large animals. But by their own admission, the VPA’s training would be focused on providing services for dogs and cats. And there is absolutely no reason to think that these newly minted VPAs would be likely to choose to support small-animal practices in sparsely populated areas. Simply put, Colorado’s rural communities need people who can provide care for livestock and companion animals. A VPA would not have the required training.
In Colorado and nationwide, leading organizations including the American Veterinary Medical Association are working diligently with lawmakers and other policymakers to address rural veterinary shortages, but Proposition 129 will do nothing to alleviate such problems. What it will do is put added stress on busy veterinarians who would be required to supervise highly complex and sensitive work by inadequately trained individuals.
Please protect Colorado’s pets and other animals, and their owners, and keep the jobs of diagnosing of illnesses in, and performing surgery on, cats and dogs in the hands of the only healthcare professionals educated and trained to care for them properly – veterinarians. For the sake of our pets, we join the vast majority of our colleagues around our state in strongly urging Coloradoans to vote ‘NO’ on Proposition 129.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kayla Henderson and
Dr. Curtis Crawford
Alpine Veterinary Hospital
Monte Vista, Colo.
