Fight for your right to choose non-vet practitioners

Fight for your right to choose non-vet practitioners

Shouldn’t animal owners have the right to seek alternative healthcare and wellness therapies from non-veterinarians? The Arizona Alliance for Animal Owners’ Rights, Inc. (AZAAOR) not only believes we should have these rights, but was formed to lobby for legislative change to ensure them.

by Lisa Ross-Williams — 

As humans, we have the right to use alternative and wellness practitioners who are not medical doctors but, according to the current wording of Arizona Revised Statutes 32-2231 (acts constituting the practice of veterinary medicine), we do not have the right to do so for our animals. In effect, even though alternative modalities (e.g., acupressure, homeopathy, energy/body work, herbalism, equine dentistry, etc.) are not taught in U.S. veterinary colleges nor included in the Arizona Veterinary Medical Board (AVMB) exams, licensed veterinarians are the only ones who can legally offer such services. (Current ARS 32-2231 wording can be seen at: www.azaaor.org.)

A non-vet practitioner, who often has extensive knowledge and training, can be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor, ordered to cease and desist, and possibly fined for offering these valuable services to our animals. To date, numerous practitioners have received investigative letters from the AVMB as unlicensed practitioners.

Shouldn’t animal owners have the right to seek alternative healthcare and wellness therapies from non-veterinarians? The Arizona Alliance for Animal Owners’ Rights, Inc. (AZAAOR) not only believes we should have these rights, but was formed to lobby for legislative change to ensure them.

AZAAOR, a pending nonprofit lobbying and educational association, is committed to ensuring that owners have legal access to non-vet service providers. It also is dedicated to educating people about the benefits of alternative and wellness services.

Through membership, the alliance will raise money, awareness and political visibility to secure the future of these non-veterinary medicine modalities for all who choose to use them.

Lisa Ross-Williams is president of the Arizona Alliance for Animal Owners Rights, Inc. azaaor@msn.com or www.azaaor.org or 480-671-4896.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 24, Number 2, April/May 2005.