Report summarizes year in state legislation

The AVMA State Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Department recently released a year-end report on several thousand bills and regulations that the department tracked in 2012.

The report highlights new rules of interest to veterinarians, trends in legislative and regulatory affairs, and other developments.

Noteworthy developments include the following:

• California passed a law prohibiting landlords from adopting rental policies that require tenants to have animals declawed or devocalized as a condition of occupancy.
• California voters defeated a ballot proposition to require foods containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such on packaging or supermarket shelves.
• California and Louisiana banned the sale of live animals in specified public places such as streets, parking lots, and sidewalks.
• Legislators in Alaska defeated a bill to allow out-of-state veterinarians to practice free of charge in rural areas of Alaska. State regulators adopted rules to allow veterinary technicians to provide care to animals under remote direction in communities without a veterinary practice.
• In Pennsylvania, a veterinarian who keeps a client’s animal while the practice is closed must now inform the owner who will be on the premises with the animal and what level of monitoring will be provided.

The report on state legislation is available at avma.org/advocacy/stateandlocal under “State Legislative Updates” on the left side of the page. AVMA members may subscribe to a monthly email newsletter on state legislation by clicking the button on the right side.