CA animal owners: protect your right to choose before it is too late!

Proposed wording in regards to Animal Rehabilitation (AR) will make it illegal for you, the animal owner, to use your current animal body worker for your animal’s bodywork session unless they are a veterinarian or a vet tech or licensed physical therapist under the onsite supervision of a veterinarian. The proposed AR wording change places therapeutic massage as the practice of veterinary medicine. Those individuals who work as animal body workers or similar who are not vets, vet techs or licensed PTs will fall under “unlicensed activity” and will be subject to prosecution if found providing “therapeutic” massage sessions.

Not only does that remove your right to choose who you want to use for your animal, it effectively drives up your cost. In addition to the issues mentioned above, clinics who send out qualified RVTs or PTs to provide services (FES, shockwave etc) after the initial examination by the primary veterinarian will need to have a veterinarian accompany the staff if this wording is successful.

The California Veterinary Medical Board (VMB) explains their rationale here: http://www.vmb.ca.gov/laws_regs/arehab_notice.pdf. To see the reasons against this proposal, please visit and click onto California Animal Owners Call to Action!: http://www.equinology.com/info/massage-articles.asp

Let the VMB know this proposed wording does not work for you! This is TIME SENSITIVE! Sign this petition, write letters to the VMB, share with all your animal friends and educate.

If you can make it to the public hearing here is the information: September 10, 2015 at 9am at the office of the Board, located at 1747 N. Market Blvd., Suite 230, Sacramento, California, 95834. At the hearing, any interested person may present statements or arguments orally or in writing relevant to the action proposed.