WEST virginia
legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources then Government
Organization.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §30-10-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, relating to permitting certain animal euthanasia technicians who have
been certified by other states be certified animal euthanasia technicians in
West Virginia.
Be it enacted by the Legislature
of West Virginia:
That §30-10-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10.
VETERINARIANS.
§30-10-3. Definitions.
As used in this article,
the following words and terms have the following meanings:
(a) "Animal" means any animal other than
human, and the term includes fowl, birds, amphibians, fish, and reptiles, wild
or domestic, living or dead.
(b) "Animal control facility"
means a municipal or county operated humane society or animal shelter
incorporated and organized under the laws of this state, or a humane society or
an animal shelter classified as 501(c)(3) by the Internal Revenue Service, with
at least one certified animal euthanasia technician.
(c) "Applicant"
means a person making application for a license, certificate, registration or
permit, under the provisions of this article.
(d) "Board" means the West Virginia
Board of Veterinary Medicine.
(e) "Business entity" means
any firm, partnership, association, company, corporation, limited partnership,
limited liability company or other entity performing veterinary medicine,
veterinary technology or animal euthanasia.
(f) "Certificate"
means an animal euthanasia technician certificate issued under the provisions
of this article.
(g) "Certificate holder"
means a person holding a certificate issued under the provisions of this
article.
(h) "Certified animal euthanasia
technician"
means a person who is certified by the board to euthanize animals in accordance
with the provisions of this article or is certified by any state that abides
by the standards of the board.
(i) "General supervision"
means the supervising veterinarian is in the building where the animal is being
treated, has given instructions for treatment and is quickly and easily
available.
(j) "Indirect supervision"
means the performance of procedures on the orders of a supervising
veterinarian.
(k) "License"
means a veterinary medicine license issued under the provisions of this
article.
(l) "Licensee"
means a person holding a license issued under the provisions of this article.
(m) "Permit" means a temporary permit to
practice veterinary medicine issued by the board.
(n) "Permittee"
means a person holding a permit issued under the provisions of this article.
(o) "Practice of veterinary
medicine"
means to diagnose, treat, correct, change, relieve or prevent any disease,
deformity, defect, injury, or other physical or mental condition, of any
animal, or to prescribe for or to administer to any animal any drug, medicine,
biologic, apparatus, application, anesthetic or other therapeutic or diagnostic
substance or technique, or to render advice or any recommendation with respect
to any of the foregoing.
(p) "Practice of veterinary
technology"
means the science and art of providing all aspects of professional medical
care, services and treatment for animals with the exceptions of diagnosis,
prognosis, surgery, prescription and application of any treatments, drugs,
medications or appliances, where a valid veterinarian-client-patient
relationship exists.
(q) "Registered veterinary
technician"
means a person who is duly registered to practice veterinary technology under
the provisions of this article.
(r) "Registrant"
means a person holding a registration issued under the provisions of this
article.
(s) "Registration"
means a veterinary technician registration issued under the provisions of this
article.
(t) "Supervising veterinarian"
means a veterinarian, licensed under this article, who assumes responsibility
for the professional care given to an animal by a person authorized by this
article to work under his or her general or indirect supervision.
(u) "Veterinarian"
means a person who is licensed to practice veterinary medicine under the
provisions of this article.
(v) "Veterinary assistant"
means a person who has not met the requirements for becoming a registered
veterinary technician. The duties and tasks of a veterinary assistant are
instructed from and directly supervised by a licensed veterinarian, who is
accountable for the veterinary assistant's actions. The supervising veterinarian is responsible
for determining the ability and competence of the veterinary assistant to
perform the directed task or procedure.
(w)
"Veterinarian-client-patient relationship" means a relationship
between a veterinarian, a client and a patient, and exists when:
(1) A veterinarian assumes
responsibility for medical judgments regarding the health of an animal and the
client who is the owner or other caretaker of the animal agrees to follow the
veterinarian's instructions; or
(2) A veterinarian, through
personal examination of an animal or a representative sample of a herd or
flock, obtains sufficient information to make at least a general or preliminary
diagnosis of the medical condition of the animal, herd or flock, which
diagnosis is expanded through medically appropriate visits to the premises
where the animal, herd or flock is kept.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to permit certain animal euthanasia technicians who have been certified by other
states be certified animal euthanasia technicians in West Virginia.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.