This is incredible to watch from the human side of medicine, Eric. I am astounded at the low level of training as proposed. And as you rightly point out, there are HUGE subsidies for human care (in addition to Medicare financing our training). I will be watching and keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Appreciate your thoughts Stacy, it is truly shocking what they are proposing. The fate of this bill (and potentially our profession) is now up to the voters of Colorado 🙏🤞
Thank you so much for your review! It is horrible to think of donors well meaning dollars going to political lobbyists, paying groups to source signatures (conflict of interest much? Do the people being payed to harvest these signatures really believe in the proposal or do they just see an easy paycheck 🤔). If I was a large donor (or even small) I would be furious and immediately stop all financial support. Apryl Steele doesn’t even address extremely important information such as the CACVT being opposed to this, her own employees being opposed to this, how we pay this new position, how this will appeal to and retain people in this position to serve in rural communities (especially if there is are veterinarians practicing there). Apryl knows that many who are employed by her are against 129, and she doesn’t care to hear their voice because of the extreme tunnel vision she has (I would not be surprised if this may be in part bribery, you can get a lot of people to dance for the right amount of money). She projects herself in a way that persuades the reader to believe that she cares for animals yet is completely satisfied with 65 online credit hours to cut open the animals she cares for so much. I love that you pull up and compare what is required to be a PA in the state 129 is being pushed and PAs only study one species and do not perform surgery. Working HQHVSN your eyes are opened wide to the MANY variables of anatomy even for a “routine” male cat neuter. I have witnessed either personally or while assisting another veterinarian testicular/scrotal tumors that require scrotal ablation, surprise cryptorchid (retained testicle that requires to surgically open the abdomen to find it due to lack of normal development), surprise testicular torsion, surprise hermaphrodite, surprise microorchidism of the testicle (one testicle being abnormally small, sometimes EXTREMELY small, think the size of a pepper corn ), abnormal bleeding, accidentally tearing the spermatic cord while autoligating (this requires finding the spermatic cord to stop hemorrhaging that can lead to patient death, the testicular artery does branch right off the aorta if you didn’t know so this bleeding can be SIGNIFICANT), distal urethra accidentally being incised requiring placement of a urinary catheter, and this is not an extensive list. And what can vary from the normal for a spay, don’t even get me started this list is even longer. So unless there is a core understanding of the embryology and anatomy beyond the reproductive tract or single body system, I would never have that individual cutting into me, cutting into my child, or cutting into my pet. This is seriously a welfare issue. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that Apryl Steele, a colleague, sees no issue with this! And you also need to have extensive understanding in pharmacology and pathophysiology and anesthesiology to be able to intervene should there be issues while the animal is under general anesthesia, having a reaction to the medication or codes. Don’t lie to the public to push your agenda, do better. Support veterinarians and veterinary technicians, vote no. The solution we already partially have, our hugely overlooked veterinary technician role, a licensed individual that should be supported to specialize (the VTS that already exists). And if you feel there are gaps or short falls in the veterinary curriculum (such as hours of surgical time, or dental curriculum), push to fix those first!
Thank you for providing so many great examples of complications and pitfalls that highlight the importance of robust training. Like I pointed out in my post last week, with some vet schools going to a truncated 3-year curriculum and no required internships/residencies, our current training is *already* closer to a PA than a physician in length, despite packing in information about multiple species! Bananas.
This sets a new precedent: corporations with lobbyists and complicit politicians use the ballot initiative to enable seizing control and practice of an established licensed profession while holding the professionals and their professional societies with the authority of expertise at arms' length. What is being done now to veterinarians in Colorado enables doing it in this state to any profession with statutory recognition in licensing, certification, or registration.
Corporate monopolies and takeovers are rarely good for consumers, clients, or the professions.
I have my beefs with the corporate consolidation in vetmed, but I don't think they are all bad. From what I can tell digging into open source records, corporate donors are not a major funder of Prop 129. It really does seem like this is coming from the "true believers" in the non-profit and shelter side. I don't doubt the sincerity of their beliefs, I just think their proposal is misguided and poorly-designed.
This is incredible to watch from the human side of medicine, Eric. I am astounded at the low level of training as proposed. And as you rightly point out, there are HUGE subsidies for human care (in addition to Medicare financing our training). I will be watching and keeping my fingers crossed for you.
Appreciate your thoughts Stacy, it is truly shocking what they are proposing. The fate of this bill (and potentially our profession) is now up to the voters of Colorado 🙏🤞
Thank you so much for your review! It is horrible to think of donors well meaning dollars going to political lobbyists, paying groups to source signatures (conflict of interest much? Do the people being payed to harvest these signatures really believe in the proposal or do they just see an easy paycheck 🤔). If I was a large donor (or even small) I would be furious and immediately stop all financial support. Apryl Steele doesn’t even address extremely important information such as the CACVT being opposed to this, her own employees being opposed to this, how we pay this new position, how this will appeal to and retain people in this position to serve in rural communities (especially if there is are veterinarians practicing there). Apryl knows that many who are employed by her are against 129, and she doesn’t care to hear their voice because of the extreme tunnel vision she has (I would not be surprised if this may be in part bribery, you can get a lot of people to dance for the right amount of money). She projects herself in a way that persuades the reader to believe that she cares for animals yet is completely satisfied with 65 online credit hours to cut open the animals she cares for so much. I love that you pull up and compare what is required to be a PA in the state 129 is being pushed and PAs only study one species and do not perform surgery. Working HQHVSN your eyes are opened wide to the MANY variables of anatomy even for a “routine” male cat neuter. I have witnessed either personally or while assisting another veterinarian testicular/scrotal tumors that require scrotal ablation, surprise cryptorchid (retained testicle that requires to surgically open the abdomen to find it due to lack of normal development), surprise testicular torsion, surprise hermaphrodite, surprise microorchidism of the testicle (one testicle being abnormally small, sometimes EXTREMELY small, think the size of a pepper corn ), abnormal bleeding, accidentally tearing the spermatic cord while autoligating (this requires finding the spermatic cord to stop hemorrhaging that can lead to patient death, the testicular artery does branch right off the aorta if you didn’t know so this bleeding can be SIGNIFICANT), distal urethra accidentally being incised requiring placement of a urinary catheter, and this is not an extensive list. And what can vary from the normal for a spay, don’t even get me started this list is even longer. So unless there is a core understanding of the embryology and anatomy beyond the reproductive tract or single body system, I would never have that individual cutting into me, cutting into my child, or cutting into my pet. This is seriously a welfare issue. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that Apryl Steele, a colleague, sees no issue with this! And you also need to have extensive understanding in pharmacology and pathophysiology and anesthesiology to be able to intervene should there be issues while the animal is under general anesthesia, having a reaction to the medication or codes. Don’t lie to the public to push your agenda, do better. Support veterinarians and veterinary technicians, vote no. The solution we already partially have, our hugely overlooked veterinary technician role, a licensed individual that should be supported to specialize (the VTS that already exists). And if you feel there are gaps or short falls in the veterinary curriculum (such as hours of surgical time, or dental curriculum), push to fix those first!
Thank you for providing so many great examples of complications and pitfalls that highlight the importance of robust training. Like I pointed out in my post last week, with some vet schools going to a truncated 3-year curriculum and no required internships/residencies, our current training is *already* closer to a PA than a physician in length, despite packing in information about multiple species! Bananas.
Thanks for the update.
You are very welcome!
This sets a new precedent: corporations with lobbyists and complicit politicians use the ballot initiative to enable seizing control and practice of an established licensed profession while holding the professionals and their professional societies with the authority of expertise at arms' length. What is being done now to veterinarians in Colorado enables doing it in this state to any profession with statutory recognition in licensing, certification, or registration.
Corporate monopolies and takeovers are rarely good for consumers, clients, or the professions.
https://pestakeholder.org/news/antitrust-enforcement-and-consolidation-in-veterinary-medicine/
I have my beefs with the corporate consolidation in vetmed, but I don't think they are all bad. From what I can tell digging into open source records, corporate donors are not a major funder of Prop 129. It really does seem like this is coming from the "true believers" in the non-profit and shelter side. I don't doubt the sincerity of their beliefs, I just think their proposal is misguided and poorly-designed.