KJCT8 - Fixing The Lack Of Rural Veterinarians
News Article
By Honora Swanson
You may not have trouble finding a veterinarian for you dog or cat, but thousands of farm animals around Colorado are going unseen. Some worry this lack of attention from vets could put our farm animals at risk.
Data shows there are just not enough veterinarians out there working on farm animals.
The vet we spoke with today says this may leave Colorado's food source vulnerable to disease.
Many animals despise at the idea of going to the vet. But Dr. Dominic Carrica comes to them.
Carrica is one of Mesa County's veterinarians who serve thousands of animals who can't leave the farm.
"The healthier your animals are, the better it is for them in the long run, and the cheaper it is for you as well," Carrica said.
However some farm animals on the Western Slope may be neglected. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, Delta County only has four vets for more than 11,000 farm animals. Montrose County is even worse; it has four vets for nearly 17,000 animals. And Garfield County, it has just two for about 14,000 animals.
So to solve this problem, Senator Michael Bennet is backing a bill to end the veterinarian shortfall. The bill would give veterinarians a tax exemption if they were willing to work in a rural community.
Dr. Carrica says an exemption may encourage more to attend to farm animals.
"That is one of the reasons that so few of us are still around," he said. "It's not as lucrative. The work is more difficult and the hours are longer. Tax incentives would be wonderful."
While these animals are pets, their vet says those sold as food, need to be protected.
"One of our primary functions of any food animal vet, is to keep the food in the U.S. disease free. And so it's definitely important work."
The American Veterinary Medical Association notes 15 Colorado counties don't even have one veterinarian.
Another round of data looking at this problem is expected next year. Bennet's office says it's not sure if the problem will be the same, but it doesn't expect it to go away.
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