House Bill 07-1296 “Concerning the Right of an Animal Owner to Choose a Provider of Humane Care for the Animal,” was defeated by a vote of 3-4 in a hearing in front of the Colorado Senate’s Agriculture, Natural Resources & Energy Committee on March 22, 2007. The bill’s defeat is a major victory for CVMA and the bill’s other opponents, who had significant concerns about the bill’s impact on animal health and welfare as well as public health and consumer safety.
The legislation was proposed by the Colorado Alliance of Animal Owners Rights.
The CAAOR had proposed that massage therapists, farriers, and other allied health professionals should be allowed to work without the direct supervision of a veterinarian, as speccified in the state's Veterinary Practice Art.
An article in the Montrose Daily Press attempts to tell both sides of the story, which is similar to an attempt made to legally free allied health professionals of the danger of a felony prosecution.
In an interesting twist of fate, the same committee approved the legality of licensed physical therapists, presumably even those without any training in animal physiology and anatomy, to work on animals without veterinary supervision.
