Arizona animal shelters derail effort to regulate veterinarians

Three of Arizona's biggest animal-welfare agencies opposed an effort this year to create oversight of veterinarians working in shelters despite the deaths and injuries of hundreds of dogs as a result of botched surgeries over the past decade.

Maricopa County's animal shelter, the Arizona Animal Welfare League and the Arizona Veterinary Medical Association opposed proposed legislation that would have allowed the state to investigate and discipline veterinarians providing care at shelters.

This means the state's shelter animals do not have the same protections as animals under the care of private veterinarians, who can be punished for malpractice with fines, probation and license revocation by the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board.

RELATED: Shelter spays pregnant dogs, destroys 25 full-term pups

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, scrapped efforts last month to draft a bill that would have made shelter veterinarians adhere to the same standards of care as private ones.

Officials from county and private shelters told him it would cost thousands of dollars to bring operations into compliance with state standards, and it likely would lead them to put down more animals, spiking euthanasia rates, Kavanagh said.

"They said it would have done the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish," Kavanagh said. "According to counties, the (state) standards could not be met."

Kavanagh said without the support of county shelters and other animal-welfare groups, there was no way legislation would pass.

Arizona is one of five U.S. states that don't regulate shelter veterinarians, according to Arizona Republic research.

Supporter: Shelters resisted all regulation

A loophole in the law treats shelters as "owners" of animals under its care.  As a result, the state veterinary board, which oversees Arizona's more than 2,000 licensed veterinarians, can do nothing about any reported problems at public and private shelters.

Supporters of increased regulations said the three animal-welfare agencies resisted all attempts to give the state authority to investigate even egregious cases of poor care or professional misconduct by shelter veterinarians.

"Not even in cases where vets amputate the wrong leg, or where spay stitches come out and a dog's guts fall out," animal-rescue volunteer Beth Lockhart said. "They didn't want any legislation of any kind."

Lockhart, who first contacted Kavanagh's office about creating legislation, attended multiple stakeholders meetings to try to come up with a proposal to satisfy supporters and opponents. She said representatives of county shelters and other agencies fought all attempts and refused to support any legislation to increase regulations.

"This had nothing to do with money. ... No matter what we said, they wouldn't do it," Lockhart said. "We're talking about the worst cases, things that could be corrected by the vets. You can amputate the right leg or close a wound so that it doesn't fall apart. That wouldn't cost them any money."

Not every stakeholder fought legislation. Officials with the Arizona Humane Society said they did not oppose the bill and maintained its shelter could meet all the standards private veterinarians must follow under state law.

"Sen. Kavanaugh has long been a champion for Arizona’s animals and we applaud his efforts to improve the quality of care delivered to pets throughout the state’s shelters," Arizona Humane Society President Steve Hansen said in a statement.

"We do not oppose Sen. Kavanaugh’s efforts and sought to best understand the impact this legislation could have on shelters and animals throughout the state," Hansen said.

A lobbyist representing a coalition of other animal-welfare groups, including the Arizona Humane Society, sought to broker a compromise with Maricopa County and other groups opposed to shelter legislation, but the effort failed.

A history of problems at the county shelter

The proposed legislation follows a string of controversies in the past eight years involving veterinarians at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, which is one of the nation's biggest public shelter agencies.

Mistakes by shelter veterinarians have been documented in graphic social-media posts. The posts, primarily from shelter volunteers or animal rescue groups, included bloody pictures and descriptions of animals that were misdiagnosed, left untreated or who suffered surgical complications.

RELATED: Veterinarians operating with impunity at county shelter

A 2015 investigation by The Arizona Republic found that hundreds of dogs and cats experienced traumatic and sometimes fatal complications following routine surgeries, such as spaying and neutering, since 2008.

Dogs died after their incisions came undone. They developed infections. Foreign objects were left in their bodies. Some were left untreated with serious wounds, and others were misdiagnosed.

Shelter officials said cases of botched surgeries, called complications, represented about 0.05 percent of 111,000 surgeries. But The Republic's investigation found the county's numbers were flawed and the complication rate excluded thousands of animals adopted each year that might suffer medical problems later.

Death of 'Lucy' after spaying spurs a change 

A 3-year-old border collie named Lucy became the latest Maricopa County shelter animal to die after being spayed last month, records show.

Two days after her surgery, the stitches holding the spay incision came undone and the dog's innards spilled out. A rescue group that had adopted the dog brought her back to the county for emergency surgery, but the damage could not be repaired. Lucy was euthanized.

Lucy's death prompted Maricopa County shelter officials to request a necropsy, a medical  examination of the dog's body to determine what caused the sutures to fail. On Feb. 8, the shelter's clinic staff was ordered to adopt a new layered stitching method for closing spay incisions.

Maricopa Animal Care and Control Director Mary Martin, who took over shelter operations in October, acknowledged the deaths and said veterinarians should be held accountable.

"The guts should not fall out of animals," she said, adding that cases should be promptly reviewed. "We need to look at the situations that occur and we need to be on top of (them)."

But Martin drew a sharp line at legislation that would treat private and shelter veterinarians equally. She said shelter veterinarians care for thousands of animals a year, some of which are in very poor health. She said it wouldn't be fair to hold shelter veterinarians to the same standards as those working in private practice.

"It is much more of a triage situation than you see in private practice," Martin said. "(Laws) need to be fair to the vets doing the work."

Martin said complying with Arizona's Veterinary Practices Act would put a steep financial burden on the county. The act requires veterinarians to be personally acquainted with each animal they treat and establish individual care plans. It also requires veterinarians to separate sick animals and to provide care quickly.

Martin said he county would have to redesign the shelter and resort to euthanizing animals for which it could not immediately treat. Violations could result in a veterinarian's license being suspended or revoked.

"There are concerns vets would be putting their licenses at risk working for the county," she said.

Martin said she doesn't oppose new standards. But she said there are plenty of circumstances "that being under the (Veterinary Medical Examining Board) would not address." She said she wants a chance to study alternatives for "some kind of shelter models."

Concerns over unintended consequences

Officials with the Arizona Animal Welfare League & SPCA also said the proposed legislation would have unintended consequences for the non-profit shelter.

"It would be a big, huge problem for any non-profit operation," President and CEO Judith Gardner said. "A shelter in a public situation is a whole lot different than in a private veterinarian situation."

She said a private veterinarian might spend thousands of dollars on specialty tests that a shelter can't afford, and the state would not be able to arbitrate those issues.

"We don't have the money to do that," she said. "We do the best we can."

Gardner said the SPCA takes in up to 5,000 animals a year. She said state boards are typically staffed by private veterinarians who have little or no shelter experience.

If she has problems with a veterinarian making mistakes, Gardner said, she will take action.

"I don't see any reason ... these veterinarians should be reporting to any kind of board," Gardner said, adding that state board members "don't know the kind of work we do or how we deal with it."

Emily Kane, executive director of Arizona Veterinary Medical Association, a trade and lobbying organization representing more than 1,000 veterinarians, said she deferred to concerns raised by shelters.

"We are taking a wait-and-see approach," she said. "We were opposed to the language as it was drafted ... We don't feel enough deference was given to shelters."

Kane said standards need to be developed specifically for shelter veterinarians, but the proposed legislation was unfair. "What standards can they meet in the environment they practice?"

She said it would be better if the shelters came up with their own standards rather than have standards imposed by legislation.

"No one's looking here to turn their head and look away. You don't solve a problem by creating another problem," Kane said. "We do care about regulations. We do care about professional standards. We do care about animals."

Most states regulate shelter veterinarians

Arizona is one of a handful of states that exempts shelter veterinarians from state oversight. The others are New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota and Ohio.

California passed a law in 1998 that explicitly states shelters are not the owners of the animals and makes them answerable to the state's veterinarian medical board. The state maintains "if shelters are providing veterinary care, they are practicing veterinary medicine." It lists everything from making a diagnosis to providing dental treatment as a form of veterinarian medicine.

The Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners has limited jurisdiction and in 2015 ruled that private and public shelters must provide the same quality of care as private veterinarians. The decision has led to legal challenges by shelter operators who say the standard will raise costs and lead to high levels of euthanasia.

Lockhart, who surveyed all 50 states while researching Kavanagh's legislation, said several have similar or identical language to Arizona's Veterinary Practices Act. Those states, however, interpret the "ownership" of animals differently and don't make exemptions for private and public shelters.

Lockhart said her research convinced her there is no reason why shelter veterinarians should be given exceptions, particularly given the issues in Maricopa County.

"A shelter animal has as much value as a pet owned by a private person," Lockhart said. "They aren't guinea pigs and they aren't steppingstones to advance someone's (a veterinarian's) profession."