Here we go again! California is trying to pass legislation that on the surface “appears” to be a good thing, but, in reality, will cause harm to our horses. It got through the Assembly without anyone in the horse industry knowing much about what was going on. If it passes the Senate, then it will be up to the governor to veto this poor piece of legislation that has serious commercial underpinnings.

California Assembly Bill 2842 will change the law to allow graduates of any veterinary school in the world–whether accredited through the American Veterinary Medical Association’s programs or not–to take the California veterinary medicine licensing exam.

If this bill passes, and some insufficiently educated veterinarians become licensed in California, they could be granted reciprocity in other states and become licensed there. If this bill passes, there will be no way of knowing if a foreign practitioner is from an accredited vet school, or what training or competency testing has been completed to prepare that vet to work on horses in the United States.

Medical doctors have the same type of program to protect humans from insufficiently educated professionals, who also might or might not have enough command of the English language to pass the medical test, much less give critical, detailed medical instructions to patients and associates.

North America is known throughout the world as having high educational standards for its veterinarians. To that end, the AVMA does approve foreign veterinary schools, which in turn recognize our veterinarians for licensing testing overseas. To date, only three foreign veterinary colleges have requested and received approval by the AVMA’s Council on Education for this reciprocal educational parity agreement. Those are the State University of Utrecht in The Netherlands, the Royal Veterinary College in London, England, and the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. Preliminary site visits for the approval process by the AVMA are scheduled this year at Massey University in New Zealand and the Dick Veterinary School in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The World Health Organization lists more than 250 veterinary schools throughout the world. While we could expect some of these schools to produce veterinarians on par with those educated in North America, what are the guarantees that they have even heard of–much less used–some of the medications and treatment modalities that commonly are found here? Do Sri Lanka, Cuba, Bolivia, or Mexico (which has 31 “schools” to train veterinarians) educate veterinarians to work on horses in North America? The California legislature would have you believe that is true.

Would my view–which is held by many leading veterinary educators around the world–be considered protectionist?Absolutely!

If we don’t protect our horses, who will? If we can’t trust our government to ensure that the veterinarian who appears at our barn or in our clinic has been trained appropriately to care for our horses, then it will be an added burden on us before we let the “vet” touch our animals to decide whether he/she is competent.

I don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon have the educational professionals decide what the basic educational needs are for a vet, then test for that before the person is legally able to touch my horse!

There is a very workable, reliable, and updated way that veterinarians trained in foreign countries can obtain the right to test for state licenses in North America. (Most states require that a “national” test be passed by all veterinarians before they are eligible for state licenses or to take individual state tests.)

The Education Commission on Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG) is responsible for getting foreign-trained veterinarians through the first phase of competency measurement and ready to test for licenses in North America. A graduate from a non-approved or non-accredited veterinary school (as deemed by the AVMA’s Council on Education, which is sanctioned by the United States Department of Education to do so) has several criteria that must be met:

1) Proof of graduation.

2) Proof of fluency in English (either that the individual was educated in English or can pass a written and spoken English test).

3) Successful completion of the NAVLE (see below) required for all veterinarians.

4) Pass a clinical proficiency examination approved by ECFVG or complete a year of evaluated clinical experience at an AVMA-accredited or -approved college of veterinary medicine.

The North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE) is a computer-based licensing examination. It is offered throughout North America at about 300 testing centers. Candidates are able to take the exam no sooner than six months prior to expected graduation.

All vets have to meet requirements in states where they want to practice. For foreign veterinarians, this ranges from Nebraska, which has no provision for licensure of graduates of foreign countries, to a few states that allow temporary practice permits to otherwise qualified veterinarians pending successfully passing the licensing examination.

Again, I want to stress that while these foreign veterinary graduates might be skilled in practicing medicine in their own countries, there are serious doubts in my mind that someone trained to care for livestock in South Africa or Mexico, for example, could also have the training to care for livestock (specifically horses) in North America. The diseases are different. The management is different. The licensed drugs are different. The commonly used diagnostics are different. And the owners’ expectations are different.

In other words, as the AVMA so aptly put it on their web site: “The education of veterinarians differs extensively throughout the world. Educational programs are designed to produce the capabilities and skills needed by veterinarians in a particular country or region. Veterinarians in the United States are expected to be able to perform a wide range of professional tasks that are quite different than those required in many other countries…Licensing examinations intended to test individuals for professional practice in this country are testing for knowledge which is not provided in the educational programs of many of the veterinary colleges outside North America.”

Also, Australia and the AVMA want to develop a reciprocal program for veterinarians. Word is, if we reduce our standards, they don’t want our vets