Save Our Dogs - Proposition 129

As a dog lover and an owner of a veterinary care center, the treatment of pets is at the center of my world. Supporting veterinarians and veterinary technicians to perform at the highest level is of foremost concern - including ensuring there are adequate veterinary professionals to staff the various clinics and hospitals. But Colorado Proposition 129 is NOT THE ANSWER. The Proposition, which will appear on the November 5, 2024 ballot, purports to create a new veterinary professional – a Veterinary Professional Associate – who can avoid the robust and necessary medical training required to care for our pets. There is no structure to provide evaluation and certification for of this new veterinary professional nor is there an accredited curriculum. Instead, it is contemplated that online classes and a single semester internship would be sufficient to satisfy the requirements. An individual certified under this new regimen would then be permitted to diagnose diseases and perform complicated procedures, including surgeries. Not shockingly, this effort is driven by private equity and corporations looking to cut costs and drive revenues to dubious corporate-funded online college programs.

If, as the corporate backers of Proposition 129 claim, the purpose of the effort is to address shortfalls in veterinary professionals, there are far more efficient avenues to achieve this result. The Proposition has some backing from animal rescue organizations because these institutions need increased access and more cost-efficient avenues to spaying and neutering services. This result can be achieved through the regulatory framework already in place. Colorado law currently registers veterinary technicians and veterinary technician specialists. These registrations already have curriculum requirements and defined performance allowances. Rather than create a whole new professional designation with ambiguous and undefined requirements and authorizations and doing an end-around existing regulations, the better solution is to simply expand the services of veterinary technicians and ensure the appropriate training programs for in-demand services such as sterilizations. Veterinary technicians are the backbone of veterinary healthcare and have already dedicated their lives at significant costs to care for animals. A new corporation-created professional should not be permitted to displace them in the name of cost reductions. This veterinary technician-focused solution is quicker, tested, less expensive, protects jobs, meets the needs of animal rescues, and avoids the money-influenced injection of corporate cost-reduction programs into our state animal care landscape.

The very veterinary professionals that Proposition 129 purports to help have come out against the effort. The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association, the American Veterinary Medical Association and veterinarians across the state are sounding the alarm regarding the dangers of Proposition 129 and the health risks it poses to our companions.

Here in Boulder, we love our pets. And loving our cats and dogs means supporting the professionals that care for them. Proposition 129 does not do that. It simply provides a cheaper path for private equity companies and corporations to own every aspect of pet care at the cost of quality petcare. Please vote no on Proposition 129.

— Kubs Lalchandani