For the last several years, there have been two primary reasons pets are surrendered to animal shelters: lack of affordable pet-inclusive housing options, and lack of access to affordable veterinary care and/or access to timely vet appointments.
The bad news: we haven’t fixed the problem with affordable pet-inclusive housing. Not even close. But let’s talk about that another time.
The good news: California is fixin’ to address limited access to veterinary care by passing Assembly Bill 1399 — which empowers licensed California veterinarians to establish a veterinarian-client/patient relationship through video technology — which basically means now you do not have to first establish care with a vet in-person before you can access telemedicine visits.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law two weeks ago, and it will go into effect on January 1, 2024.
Currently, California regulations restrict veterinarians from effectively using telehealth and even bar them from giving simple advice and direction to pet owners through telemedicine unless the owners bring their animals into the veterinary hospital, according to a press release from the San Francisco SPCA.
For new pet owners in particular, this creates a significant challenge when it comes to establishing care with a practitioner.
Why? When someone adopts a companion animal and needs to establish care with a veterinarian, they are often unable to get a new patient appointment within a few days or weeks, or even months.
The massive shortage of veterinarians across the country has made it hard for folks to get basic care because the number of practicing vets cannot meet the demand of patients in need of care.
Many practices aren’t accepting new patients at all. This is particularly true in more rural areas or “veterinary deserts.”
For animal shelters, the vet shortage has led to more surrenders, more adoption-returns, and a dramatic slow down of adoptions.
When we talk to pet owners in crisis,…
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