ATTENTION! All Horse Owners of Texas

[Skittlebittie]

Hey Guys,

Here is an email I just got from Carl. If you need to contact him, his email is [email protected]

Please contact Charles Anderson to let him know you support this bill.

Thanks,

Lori

ATTENTION!

All Horse Owners of Texas:

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Bill # 378 is now with the Ag Committee. This is the bill to allow equine teeth floating by non-vets.

It is very important that you contact Representative Charles "Doc" Anderson (District # 56), the vice chair of this committee and tell him to support this bill. Remind him that the State Vet Board gave legislators the responsibility to change this law.

Sid Miller is no longer the chair of the Ag Committee - in fact, he is not on the committee at all.

Charles "Doc" Anderson contact info:

Capitol Phone: 512-463-0135

Distric Office: 254-754-3892

Email: [email protected]

*Please Forward This To Every Horse Owner in the State of Texas!

Thank you for your support.

Carl Mitz

 

[mizbeth]

I have already written to him. Thank you for posting, I do not know if this is good news or not?

Lets be positive!

Beth

 

[ANDROMEDA FARM]

Yes, I have already written to him & am hoping for good news from this.

 

[Skittlebittie]

Thanks guys, for your support of this bill. Beth, I agree, I am unsure if this is good news either. The last I heard, the State Board was delaying their decision. I sent an email to Carl asking if they had already passed the bill saying that ONLY vets could perform dentistry, and if this bill # 378 was trying to overturn that decision? I have not heard back from him yet, but will post his answer when I do.

Thanks again,

Lori

 

[JWC sr.]

Everyone needs to realize that if this bill is not overturned it is going to effect not only the dentistry portion of the care we need for our horses, but will have long reaching effect on both the horse and cattle industry. :arg!

In other words this is just the tip of the iceberg of where this is headed. Additionally there are several other states surrounding Texas that are watching and waiting to revise their regulations according to the outcome of Texas.

Everyone in my opinion need to send out the email and/or letter so as to give us the horse owners the choice when seeking the best health care we can get for our mini friends.

Remember to keep your responses civil and straight to the point.

 

[Skittlebittie]

Okay, I just spoke with Carl, and got the details from the "horse's mouth", so to speak. The way he explains it, is the original bill, drafted in 1911, basically stated that de-horning, hoof trimming, castration, tail docking, etc, were NOT considered part of the Veterinary Medicine Act. They specifically left out teeth floating, because in 1911, 15 yr old horses were considered "old", and were worth much less money. So, a guy named Miller, decided to cheat the system by filing down incisors and using silver nitrate to "de-age" horses. For 100 years, they left teeth floating alone. Then, in 2007, they decided to re-interpret the 1911 bill, and add teeth floating to veterinary medicine. This bill, 378, was drafted by the Agricultural Commisioner ( I cant remember his name now), that is not only not in office anymore, but is no longer on the board at all. "Political" reasons were given for his being taken off as commisioner. So, the new Ag Comm, Charles Anderson, DVM, is taking his place, and we have to lobby him again, sort of starting from scratch. This bill, 378, simply puts teeth floating in the same category it should have been in if this Miller guy hadn't been so sneaky. It puts floating in the "non-veterinary" category. The initial vote was supposed to be in Jan, then was postphoned to Feb, then, March, and now April. Carl will let us all know the exact date. He says in the past, that the more people were in the courtroom, the more serious the judge took the case. So...........hope that clears everything up for you all, I know I learned something!

Lori

 

[wildoak]

I've already emailed, may follow up with a phone call.

Jan

 

[Versatility Farm & Training]

I have a question, where does this leave extracting teeth, and pulling caps? When Carl comes here he always removes wolf teeth and pulls caps along with floating on my driving horses.Will he be allowed to do that in the state of Texas if this bill passes?

 

[wildoak]

I have wondered the same thing - may be that they are fighting one battle at a time.

Jan

 

[JourneysEnd]

I have a question, where does this leave extracting teeth, and pulling caps? When Carl comes here he always removes wolf teeth and pulls caps along with floating on my driving horses.Will he be allowed to do that in the state of Texas if this bill passes?

He won't be allowed to do anything if the bill doesn't pass.

I would consider popping caps to be part of floating. Most vets don't charge any extra for that.

My vet just went up from $70 to $110 for a float and he has his vet tech doing the job because he doesn't like to get on the ground and do the minis. Needless to say, I won't be having mine done at the vet's anymore.

 

[JWC sr.]

The other point that everyone needs to realize is that for individuals that own thier own farm company, such as our Cherryville Farms LLP.

By merely making an equine denist an employee and issuing the proper employee paper work etc. We will be able to continue to use an equine denist, as an employee of the company is allowed to do this type work on farm owned animals.

Therefore the little folks are the ones that are going to be denied the ability to make a choice when needing denistry work done. Not the big farms, which sucks in my opinion.

This durn bill is only about money and not the quality of the service we need for our horses to stay healthy at a reasonable cost. Which also sucks.

 

[Skittlebittie]

Yes, when I spoke to Carl yesterday, he said that everything he does now would be under the umbrella of "floating teeth", so if the bill passes, he will be able to everything he always did before. Interesting about the LLC, which I am not either, so I am crossing my fingers this bill will pass

Lori

 

[CyndiM]

This is a copy of the email I sent and following it is a copy of the email I received this morning.

Sir,

I am writing to you to encourage you to please vote to allow persons who are not veterinarians to float horses teeth.

I have miniature horses and my regular veterinarian can not float their teeth properly. He has caused their mouths to bleed and be very sore for several days after. They will not eat. I no longer allow him to float the mini's teeth.

There is another veterinarian, Dr. Harris (not my vet) who lives 30 miles from me, he brings in a horse dentist (non vet) and holds all day clinics. The dentist floats the teeth and vet is there by his side if a need arises. Dr. Harris has said, "this man does a better job than I can".

I do not live in your state but I do know that there are many states watching to see what Texas does in this matter and will follow suit. That sir may not be in the best interest of our horses. Thank you for reading my comments and please sir do what is right for the horses.

Sincerely

Cynthia Michel

I have spoken with our capitol office in Austin about the upcoming

HB 378, relating to non-veterinary horse dentistry.

Representative Anderson appreciates your feelings on HB 378 and he will be monitoring its progress.

Thank you,

Nancy Bradley

Director of Constituent Services

For State Representative Charles "Doc" Anderson

 

[JWC sr.]

Good letter Cyndi, thanks for your support. We all appreciate the help. I hope everyone does the same thing and loads this man's in box up with well thought out emails and letters.

 

[Teresa]

I emailed and got the same response. Hopefully he is getting flooded.

 

[Texasspook]

I hope this link comes across. This is a link to the Ag Committee and all the members of that committee. I have faxed, emailed and called each member to let them know I support this bill. Several are farmers or ranchers themselves so I hope they will understand our plight.

Thanks Traci

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/Committees/Me...p;CmteCode=C020

 

[Skittlebittie]

I got the same message when I sent an email also.

Lori