E- Source An electronic newsletter highlighting veterinary issues for Illinois veterinarians
April 2, 2004 Volume 1, Number 8

In This Issue · SB 2612 Update · University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine Funding Threatened · ISVMA Website Updates · “New” Epitome Coming Category of Links · ISVMA Contact Us peter@isvma.org

Update on Senate Bill 2612 (The Dog & Cat Overpopulation Act) Senator Don Harmon (D, Oak Park) has decided not to call SB2612 for a vote. The Senator, at the request of the ASPCA will introduce a resolution for the purpose of creating a committee to study the spay and neutering program and make recommendations. SB2612 has a number of amendments that the ASPCA is likely to propose as part of the final committee recommendation: 1. The bill would require a tax of three dollars ($3.00) to be added to the rabies inoculation to be sent to a fund in the Department of Agriculture. 2. The revenue in the fund could only be used for the spay and neutering program. Only Illinois citizens could be eligible for the program. 3. Under the bill veterinarians would charge 80% of a customary fee. The Directors of Agriculture would set the fee. 4. The added tax would be sent to the Department of Agriculture on a quarterly basis. 5. Individuals on public aid would have to provide proof of eligibility. Veterinarians would send any bill to the Department of Agriculture. 6. Individuals who adopt a dog or cat from a licensed animal shelter shall be eligible to participate in the program. The shelter sets the fee for sterilization at $30 ($15 for public aid recipients). Veterinarians can apply for payments from the animal control fund in the Department of Agriculture. SB2612 has a number of problems. The Department of Agriculture has indicated that the cost to administer the program will be in access of $100,000. The bill, which is similar to New Hampshire, has additional issues: 1. New Hampshire has 10 counties, 400 veterinarians. Illinois has 102 counties and 3500 veterinarians. Cats are not inoculated in over 95 counties. The responsibility to pay for the program will fall on dog owners. 2. New Hampshire has had problems with other states dumping animals in the state. The Humane Society has publicized the New Hampshire program. It remains to be seen how the citizenship of individuals will be checks. ISVMA will introduce legislation to support a voluntary income tax check off program similar to the State of Maine and several other states. The ASPCA wants to use Illinois as the state to start a nationwide program and will not cooperate with ISVMA. University of Illinois Funding Threatened The University Of Illinois College Of Veterinary Medicine will be losing $2 million for veterinary medical research under the budget proposed by Governor Blagojevich. This has been an allocation through the Board of Higher Education the past 3 years for research. With the current need for more veterinarians in the area of public health, production animal medicine, food security and research and the vulnerability of the state for introduction of animal diseases, this loss of funding will affect our ability to develop the knowledge base to respond to these issues and to provide the educational resource the state needs. The UI-CVM faculty has also been closely involved in research funded by the C-FAR program. With the current budget, these funds will no longer be available. So, in combination with the general decrease in state support for higher education and the loss of these two important research programs, the UI-CVM will be severely impacted and the quality and quantity of educational opportunities for the veterinary students significantly affected. ISVMA Website Updates Within the next two weeks, ISVMA will be launching a dynamic update to their website (http:www.isvma.org). In addition to being much more useful and up-to-date, it will contain many .aspx pages – pages that automatically update and/or filter using our member database. This gives us the ability to create the following: 1. There will be a search function for prospective clients to find ISVMA member veterinarians. The search can be conducted in a number of manners – by clicking on a county map to see a list of ISVMA members in that county; or by area code, zip code, practice type or last name. 2. There will be a Members’ Only section that will have information for member eyes only. We can put more detailed legislative information, newsgroups (for members to post and share ideas, thoughts, etc.), more detailed database searches, etc. Additionally, ISVMA plans to post proceedings from regional meetings for member access in this portion of the website. We’ll include a search function so you can search by topic or you can search for the listings on each regional web page. 3. We will have a credit card payment option for membership applicants and meeting registrants. These are just a few of the initial changes that will occur on the website. We’ll have more great things coming soon! “New” Epitome Is On The Way! Don’t look for the Epitome you’ve grown accustomed to seeing. When you get that bold looking, content-rich newsletter in the mail during the next several days, please take time to see what we’re doing to try and service you better. We listened to what our members wanted to see and crammed so much information into this newsletter that we expect you’ll want keep in on your desk for a reference until the next issue arrives! Included as an insert to this issue of the Epitome is a one-page survey and a member application form. We encourage everyone to fill out the survey and return it to the ISVMA office. The ISVMA Board of Directors will use the results of the survey to construct a strategic agenda for the membership. If you are already a member, don’t throw away the application form! Find someone in your practice or a neighboring practice that isn’t a member and encourage them to participate in their state association! The Epitome is being mailed to all members and member prospects.