This bill that is being introduced in the Florida Legislature exempts veterinarians who are licensed, and in good standing, in another jurisdiction from obtaining a Florida veterinary license in order to perform spay\/neuter surgeries, and preventative wellness services at the time of sterilization in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This legislation would be groundbreaking in that it would allow qualified veterinarians to contribute to the effort to provide sterilization services without having to first obtain a Florida veterinary license and is the first such legislation in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justification for this request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Veterinary Care Accessibility Project<\/a>, Florida\u2019s Veterinary Care Accessibility Score is 43 (possible scores range from 0\u2014care is nearly inaccessible to 100\u2014care is very accessible). According to the site, 31.34% of Florida\u2019s counties are in the 25th percentile for access to veterinary care. The problem is dire when it comes to spaying\/neutering veterinarians, which not only contributes to the access to care problem but also contributes to the number of animals entering shelters in our state. A recent study by Best Friends Animal Society, entitled, \u201cThe State of U.S. Animal Sheltering<\/a>,\u201d ranks Florida as the fourth worst state in unnecessary shelter deaths. Making it easier for spay\/neuter veterinarians to be able to sterilize dogs and cats in the state of Florida would go a long way toward improving these numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EXPAND ACCESS TO SPAY\/NEUTER VETERINARY CARE:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n SUPPORT SB # (Waiting to be filed) \/ HB 719 Sponsored by Rep Killebrew<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE ISSUE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spay\/Neuter surgeries are critical to reducing the population of homeless dogs and cats in Florida and preventing the euthanasia of adoptable pets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, an ongoing critical shortage of veterinarians in the workforce means that there are not enough veterinarians to meet the demand for dog and cat spay\/neuter surgeries. A recent article in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science entitled \u201cCOVID-19 associated reduction in elective spay-neuter surgeries for dogs and cats,\u201d reports that in the U.S. \u201cthere is a deficit of more than 2.7 million spay\/neuter surgeries that animal welfare organizations have yet to address.\u201d The article concludes that as an \u201congoing workforce shortage of veterinarians and staff threatens the spay-neuter recovery, conditions are ripe for an increase in unwanted litters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unplanned litters of dogs and cats put pressure on local animal shelters and government resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Floridians are motivated to get their pets sterilized, but they lack access to this vital veterinary care because of a shortage of spay\/neuter surgeons, affordability, and other barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spay\/neuter capacity is an essential element of access to care. Many animals sterilized in high-volume spay\/neuter clinics have never been to a veterinarian prior to coming in for spay\/neuter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sterilization surgeries provide the opportunity to start pets on a lifetime of wellness and prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EXISTING LAW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The practice of veterinary medicine in Florida is regulated under Chapter 474 Veterinary Medical Practice, which provides for Licensure by Endorsement (F.S.S. \u00a7474.217) and Exemptions to Licensure (F.S.S. \u00a7474.203).<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE PROPOSAL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n S.B. # \/ H.B. 719 would amend Chapter 474 Exemptions to Licensure, F.S.S. \u00a7474.203, to enable a veterinarian licensed and in good standing in another jurisdiction to provide spay\/neuter surgeries, and preventative wellness services, under the responsible supervision of a Florida-licensed veterinarian. The<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Florida-licensed supervising veterinarian would be responsible for all acts performed under her or is responsible for supervision. The veterinarian who practices under this exemption is not eligible for a premises permit under F.S.S. \u00a7474.215.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE BENEFIT TO FLORIDIANS AND THEIR PETS______<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Passage of S.B # \/H.B. 719 would allow retired or semi-retired veterinarians, who are licensed and in good standing in another jurisdiction, to provide sterilization services to Floridians and their pets under the responsible supervision of a Florida- licensed veterinarian. Florida has a significant population of part-year residents often referred to as \u201csnowbirds,\u201d including veterinarians who may spend as much as half of the year in our state. In addition to the benefits of this legislation to engaging these veterinarians in assisting spay\/neuter clinics, private practice veterinarians could engage the services of a part-year resident veterinarian to perform spay\/neuters and generate additional revenue for the clinic. Passage of this legislation would more efficiently allow eligible veterinarians to provide these services to members of our communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Editorial We need you to help support this bill in Tallahassee This bill that is being introduced in the Florida Legislature exempts veterinarians who are licensed, and in good standing,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[4514],"class_list":["post-30021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","tag-hb-719-has-been-filed"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/cat-and-dog-1024x683.jpg\")
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