PRESIDENT'S CORNER

Hello Dear Colleagues,

The busy time of year is here! Hopefully everyone is finding some time for leisure activity amongst your busy work schedules.

The MVMA is also busy working on projects.

We are still meeting with the Humane Society/Animal Allies and the College of Vet Med about a Spay/Neuter program in Minnesota. We’ve been reviewing various funding sources. The two sources that seem most viable are dog license fees and a rabies surcharge. Did you know that Minnesota doesn’t have a state-wide rabies law? We are one of the few states that does not have such a law. Currently, rabies laws are governed by municipalities.  A state-wide rabies law would be the first thing that would need to be put in place if we chose to focus on a rabies surcharge.  In the next month we should have more information to put on the website regarding the spay/neuter initiative.

Another big focus has been MVRC (Minnesota Veterinary Reserve Corp.) This new MVMA committee is organizing a system to deal with animals in case of emergencies or disasters. If you are interested in being part of this group, please contact the MVMA. We need veterinarians throughout the state who are willing to be trained and prepared for disaster situations. 

Finally, I would like to make a correction to a comment made in the March/April newsletter column referencing Kansas State University and a series of maps that highlighted the shortages of food animal veterinarians in the U.S. While KSU did conduct a study of the impact of the food animal shortage, the maps I referred to were created by the AVMA using AVMA data and data from the USDA.  You can view these maps, as well as other information about food supply veterinary medicine, at http://www.avma.org/fsvm.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, and I hope to see many of you at the AVMA convention in New Orleans.