NEWS &VIEWS You Can Use
Equine Vets: Illegally Transporting Legal Drugs?
by Ann E. Dwyer, DVM, president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners T e American Association of Equine
Practitioners Welfare and Public Policy Advisory Council is working with the American Veterinary Medical Association and Congress to ensure that veterinarians can provide complete care to their animal patients. With the recent introduction of the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1528), we have the opportunity to make an impact. As large animal veterinarians, most of us have
frequent need to use controlled substances to treat our patients at the stables, ranches, farms and other sites where they live. However, the provisions of the existing Controlled Substances Act (CSA) make it illegal for any veterinarian to transport and/or use controlled substances outside of the DEA license location that is registered for that individual. T is means that it is currently illegal for veterinarians to carry and use these vital medications for pain management, anesthesia or euthanasia on farms, at house calls, in veterinary mobile clinics, or in ambulatory response situations. Veterinarians must be able to legally carry and use controlled substances for the health and welfare of the nation’s animals, to safeguard public safety and to protect the nation’s food supply. T e Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which enforces the law, has informed organized veterinary medicine that without a statutory change, many veterinarians are in violation of the CSA and cannot legally administer controlled substances away from their registry site. T e DEA has already notifi ed some veterinarians in California and Washington State that they are in violation of this law. We encourage you to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support the Veterinary Medicine Mobility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1528). T is act would amend the CSA that currently prohibits veterinarians from transporting controlled substances to treat their animal patients outside of their registered locations. Please join us in telling Congress that veterinarians need to be able to transport controlled substances to the locations of their animal patients, not only
for the health and welfare of the nation’s animals, but for public safety. Visit
equiery.com for a link that will take
you to the AVMA Legislative Action Center where you can easily express your support of H.R. 1528. Contact information for your representative(s) is generated automatically by your zip code and a message which you may edit is provided. T ank you for your advocacy.
Be Prepared to Pay More at Maryland Pumps
While it may be a cliché that horse people
never get off the farm, as an industry, we are road warriors. We are hauling horses, hauling feed, hauling hay. Vets and farriers and other service providers live their lives on the road. And we are not hauling all of this tonnage with hybrids. So any change in the Maryland gas tax will hit our industry, and hit it hard. And we are going to get hit. T e 2013 Maryland General Assembly passed, and by the time you read this, the Governor will have signed into law, HB 1515, or the “Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act of 2013” which was sponsored by the Speaker of the House, Delegate Michael Busch. T e act will increase the fuel taxes we pay. T e act does not specifi cally state what the new tax on fuel would be; rather, the bill lays out a rather complex mathematical formula (tied into evaluations of the consumer price index and average retail prices of fuel) for increasing the gas tax. Some websites calculate that the gas tax in Maryland, which today is 23.5¢ a gallon, could rise to as much as 38.2¢ per gallon by the end of 2015, and would eff ectively raise the gas tax by as much as 63% and the diesel tax by as much as 82% by 2015, but other sources say that the formula would increase the gas tax by approximately 6%. (For links to these sources, please visit
equiery.com.) T e bill also contains language that
would prohibit governors from raiding the Transportation Trust Fund in the future (as has happened in the past). T e bill also details funding for bike lanes, watershed implementation plans, Maryland Emergency Medical System (and its communication systems), Shock Trauma, base salaries for pilots and technicians and fi eld instructors, the Sen. William Amoss Fire, Rescue & Ambulance
Fund, and other projects. HB 1515 was introduced on March 4, and in the fast and furious times that defi ne the last fi ve weeks of the Maryland General Assembly, the bill was amended at least 12 times before being passed by the House Ways and Means Committee on March 20, and then by the House of Delegates on March 22. T e bill crossed over to the Senate, where it was heard in the Budget & Taxation Committee on Monday, March 25. On March 29, it received a favorable report by Budget & Taxation (after the committee considered and rejected another dozen amendments) and by April 1, it was over, and the bill had become an act.
Sunday Hunting Has Expanded
Alas, all the horsemen’s eff orts were not enough to stave off all of the Sunday Hunting bills in the 2013 session. Two survived, and now the counties of Queen Anne’s and Carroll will allow some hunting on Sundays. For Carroll County, the act allows for deer hunting with a fi rearm on private property on any Sunday during deer season (up to 10 additional days). In Queen Anne’s County, it is also up to ten additional days of fi rearm hunting on private property, but with the added option of bow hunting. In an email received by the publisher, the Sunday hunting advocates have vowed that they will be back next session for more Sundays. T e Maryland Horse Council is working to spearhead a coalition of various land and park users to be proactive prior to the next legislative session. To learn more, visit
mdhorsecouncil.org.
H-2B Visa Program Suspended
On April 2, 2013, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it has temporarily suspended processing most petitions for new H-2B temporary nonagricultural workers. T is announcement was in response to a court decision issuing a permanent injunction against certain parts of the current Department of Labor (DOL) rule governing H-2B program wage rates. T is will eff ectively prevent most H-2B
employers, including those in the horse industry, from hiring any new H-2B workers for at least 30 days. H-2B workers currently in the country will not be impacted.
continued on page 10
IF YOU HAVE NEWS, VIEWS OR UPDATES TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE SEND THEM TO Editor at The Equiery, P.O. Box 610, Lisbon, MD 21765 • FAX: 410-489-7828 • email
editor@equiery.com.
Be sure to include your full name, phone number and address. All submissions become the property of The Equiery.
www.equiery.com | 800-244-9580 MAY 2013 | THE EQUIERY | 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104