California's equine veterinarians and its equine medical board need to have a meeting of the minds — that's the takeaway from a series of public comments ahead of the board's regularly-scheduled video conference meeting Jan. 19, where a large number of racetrack and sport horse practitioners dialed in to voice their concerns over the board's recent charges against racetrack licensees.
The most high-profile of the track veterinarians facing action against their veterinary license is California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) equine medical director Dr. Jeff Blea, whose license was suspended at an emergency hearing by the board on Christmas Eve. Blea is accused of failing to perform adequate examinations of horses prior to prescribing drugs to them, as well as lacking in record-keeping and other areas of the state's veterinary practice law. He has since been placed on administrative leave as the case plays out. Blea isn't the only one facing charges – Drs. Vince Baker, Sarah Graybill Jones, Kim Lewis Kuhlmann, Steven Lee Boyer, and Kenneth Carl Allison also had accusation documents filed against them in 2021 with similar charges. Only Blea's case has resulted in an emergency hearing.
Many in the racing industry have, publicly and privately, questioned the motivation of the veterinary medical board in its pursuit of charges against Blea, as well as its public presentation of the charges as being relevant to Blea's work in overseeing the death of Medina Spirit at Santa Anita in December. (We ran this letter to the editor from trainer Richard Mandella earlier this week testifying to the conditioner's relationship with Blea before he retired from racetrack practice.)
Speakers during the public comment period of the veterinary medical board meeting Jan. 19 did not get into the specifics of Blea's case or mention him by name, but most suggested that the regulations under which the board filed an accusation document against him were outdated and ill-suited to equine practice.
“Not every veterinary practice in this state is conducted on small animals in four-walled hospitals,” said Dr. Rick Arthur, retired racetrack practitioner and former equine medical director for CHRB. “The California Veterinary Medical Board regulations do not reflect the standard of practice, the high standard of practice in ambulatory practice in California, which makes it easy for this board to play 'Gotcha.' That has to change.”
“The scope and tone of the charges on your website are extreme, and they don't' appear to be based on any knowledge of the standards of equine practice in this state,” said Dr. Michael Manno, racetrack veterinarian with San Dieguito Equine Group. “I can tell you that if you can suspend a license based on these accusations and complaints, most of the veterinarians that practice equine medicine in this state might as well hand in their licenses right now.”
Dan Baxter, executive director of the California Veterinary Medical Association, voiced the organization's concern about whether the regulations are in touch with business practices.
“On the heels of recent enforcement action taken by the veterinary medical board, the CVMA has received emails and phone calls from numerous members practicing within the California equine community concerning the board's interpretations of minimum practice standards and enforcement of those standards,” he said. “We fear that there may be a significant disconnect between the reasonable, sound practice standards observed by equine practitioners in the field and the standards to which those same practitioners are being held by the board.
“Without a meeting of the minds between this board, the body interpreting and enforcing the legal standards of practice, and the equine practitioners subject to that enforcement, the CVMA is deeply concerned that equine veterinary practice within the state of California, already a profession in which the supply of qualified clinicians is limited, may be further gutted due to the departure of practitioners unwilling to subject their licenses or livelihoods to the vagaries of a framework that does not reflect the standard of practice observed by the equine veterinary community in this state.”
Dr. Russ Sakai, surgeon at Petaluma Equine, agreed and also expressed concern about what these types of regulatory actions may mean for veterinary students.
“There is a lack of veterinarians graduating and coming into equine practice,” said Sakai. “I think it's difficult to recruit veterinarians at the student level, especially when they see equine veterinarians being subjected to this sort of what appears to be unfair treatment, or being treated with a double standard by a group of members that seem to have not a very thorough understanding of equine practice.”
After hearing the feedback, veterinary board vice president asked the California Veterinary Medical Association to submit a presentation to the board outlining their concerns about the state's Veterinary Practice Act as applied to equine medicine and any regulatory proposals they had to remedy those issues.
There were no specific cases set to be discussed by board members during the public portion of the meeting on Jan. 19 or during a follow-up meeting scheduled for Jan. 20.
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