“She’s all protected, Doctor. I got her from my friend Susie, who gave her all her shots when she still owned her. She shows champion dogs worldwide and has to have them prepared to travel at any time, so she does all that stuff herself.”

“That’s all very well, Mrs. Jones, but there are still several problems.”

Today, let’s look at state veterinary practice acts. Veterinary practice acts are state laws that define who can legally do what for animals. Practice acts are written and passed to protect animals from abuse from well-meaning owners and quacks. They also serve to protect the public from such potential public health threats as rabies, food poisoning and toxic residues in meat, dairy products and poultry.

Let’s start with Mrs. Jones’ pet, Fluffy. First and foremost, from a practice act viewpoint, Fluffy is medicolegally unprotected from the infectious disease rabies.

Medicowhat?

Medicolegally. It means, according to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, “of or relating to both medicine and law.”

So, for medical protection from the disease rabies, from a legal point of view, Fluffy is legally unprotected. Why? Because under state law (veterinary practice act) in most states, a rabies vaccination must be administered by, or under the direct supervision of a licensed veterinarian.

Some important questions have to be answered:

1. Did Show Dog Susie obtain a rabies vaccine licensed for use in the state in which it was administered?

2. Was the vaccine shipped legally?

3. Was the vaccine kept cold from the time of manufacture to the time of administration in Fluffy?

4. Was the vaccine reconstituted (mixed) in a sterile manner, assuring there were no contaminants?

If the answer to any one of these questions is no, then Fluffy is not medically protected against the disease rabies.

5. Was the vaccine administered “under the direct supervision of a licensed veterinarian?” If the answer to questions 1 through 4 was “yes”, but a doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) was not present at the time that the vaccine was administered, Fluffy may be medically protected, but not medicolegally. Because a violation of state law occurred during the administration of the vaccine, a court of law will not recognize Fluffy’s vaccination given by Show Dog Susie.

Then, should Fluffy, now in Mrs. Jones’ ownership, bite a visitor to Mrs. Jones’ home, the bite victim likely will be medically treated as having been bitten by an unvaccinated dog.

Should the bite victim sue Mrs. Jones, the courts would also consider Fluffy to be unvaccinated, and Mrs. Jones would likely be found to be in violation of state law requiring all dogs over 12 weeks of age to be vaccinated against rabies. Her legal and financial liability in this situation would be compounded far beyond the bite itself.