Early Start to National Feral Cat Day Celebrations

Wednesday afternoon, the Alabama State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners rejected proposed Rule No. 930-X-1-.39 (in a unanimous vote, apparently), thus allowing the state’s four non-profit spay/neuter clinics to remain open.

According to a story in The Anniston Star, “board members… faced a crowd of about 100 animal advocates and shelter volunteers” at yesterday’s hearing.

“The crowd, overwhelmingly composed of people who opposed the measure, cheered as more than a dozen people spoke against the rule change. Only one speaker dissented from the crowd.”

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, this decision could have set a dangerous precedent had it gone the other way. Across the country, veterinarians working in low-cost clinics might have been accused of “perpetrating cruelty on the very animals they claim they are protecting,” to use the words of Eric R. Lewis, Communications Officer for the Alabama Veterinary Practice Owners Association, the organization behind Rule No. 930-X-1-.39.

But perhaps this case has set another kind of precedent. Read more

Alabama Vets to End Low-Cost Spay/Neuter?

“Analysis of Maddie’s Fund program results show that low-cost spay/neuter programs are effective at raising total community spay/neuter levels (i.e., they do not merely cause substitution in source of spay/neuter procedures).”
— Joshua M. Frank and Pamela L. Carlisle-Frank, Ecological Economics (2007)

Later today, the Alabama State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners is scheduled, as veterinarian Eric R. Lewis, Communications Officer for the Alabama Veterinary Practice Owners Association, put it in a recent e-mail alert, “to clarify the definitions of what a practice owner is in the state.” Which probably sounds like nothing more than a little housekeeping for the board, right?

In fact, the decision may well shut down the four low-cost non-profit spay/neuter clinics in the state.* Worse, it may set a disastrous precedent for other states.

So, what’s going on in Alabama? Read more