Enacts the "veterinary emergency response and mobility act of 2014"

Summary of provisions

Section 1. Adds new subdivisions 14 and 15 to section 6705 of the education law to provide limited licensure exemptions for specially-skilled veterinarians during a declared disaster or high-volume cruelty investigation when invited by the law enforcement agency conducting such investigation.

Section 2 Adds new subdivisions 4 and 5 to section 6712 of the education law to provide the same exemptions, under the same limited circumstances, for specially-skilled veterinary technicians.

Section 3. Prescribes an immediate effective date.

Justification

From hurricanes and flooding to animal fighting and other large-scale animal cruelty cases, law enforcement and emergency management agencies rely heavily on specially-trained veterinarians to rescue animals from life-threatening situations and mitigate associated risks to human populations. This measure seeks to better integrate these responders into the existing response framework by recognizing the valid and current licenses of specially-trained veterinary professionals invited into the State either by the Department of Agriculture and Markets or by law enforcement to assist with such incidents.

Expertise in the specialized fields of shelter medicine and forensic veterinary medicine is critical to a successful response. Only a veterinarian with shelter medicine experience can successfully oversee an emergency or disaster response operation, which requires Incident Command System (ICS) training and typically involves managing long-term temporary housing for a large number of animals, preventing infectious disease, following specialized sanitation protocols and practicing behavior medicine. Responding to large-scale cruelty cases also typically requires knowledge of ICS protocols, in addition to long-term commitments and expertise in crime scene processing/forensic veterinary medicine. Certain protocols must be followed by veterinarians to collect and document evidence and follow chain of custody rules as they process and care for animals.

Often, there is not a sufficient amount of New York licensed veterinarians available to provide the required expertise or meet the volume of response needed in these situations. We saw this during New York's response to Hurricane Irene and Super Storm Sandy, and most recently in February, when the ASPCA worked with Attorney General Schneiderman's Organized Crime Task Force to orchestrate the seizure

of over 4,000 roosters as a part of a three county cockfighting ring raid.

Veterinary professionals typically hold a license to practice in only their home state but emergencies or natural disasters and large-scale cruelty cases can take place anywhere. While New York does have mechanisms to recognize the valid and current out-of-state licenses of volunteer health practitioners including veterinarians - in times of emergency there is not express authority granted which would allow for valid and current out-of-state licensed veterinarians to work in animal response teams of sufficient number to effectively respond to large-scale cruelty and emergency response cases. When veterinarians are unable to deploy because of this licensing restriction, the success of the operation is negatively impacted or in some cases, the operation might not be able to happen at all.

Local veterinarians, of course, remain integral to the success of such operations - indeed, long-term animal care is needed in many instances following the conclusion of a given response or investigation-but having to rely too heavily on local veterinarians to fulfill all the needs of a given animal response team can compromise the outcome of a response to a large-scale cruelty case or emergency. Law enforcement frequently requests that animal response teams keep operations confidential prior to the execution of a warrant, which prevent responders from securing the assistance of local veterinarians in advance In addition, the vast majority of veterinary medicine practitioners are small business owners who cannot leave their practices on such short notice to assist Of those who are able to help, most can only offer one or two days at a time. Because these operations can last for many weeks, there is a need for ongoing specialty care that almost always exceeds or exhausts the capacity of a local veterinarian population, thereby resulting in a piecemeal approach rather than thorough, methodical and consistent care to a compromised population of animals.

This measure seeks to responsibly ensure the provision of such specialty care when disaster strikes or in support of state and municipal law enforcement cruelty investigations, while ensuring that those services are provided only for the duration of the investigation/response period.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Immediately.