EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Two new Texas laws passed in the latest legislative session will help Texas pet owners make better and more informed decisions about where they take their animals to get veterinary care, experts said.
Senate Bill 2155 will require all animal care facilities where veterinary medicine is practiced to register with the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners (TBVME), according to the TBVME.
They add that the measure will also give the TBVME’s executive director the authority to issue an immediate emergency order to suspend or revoke a veterinary professional’s license or temporarily shut down an unsafe veterinary medical facility, if the TVME determines that the public’s health and safety are at risk.
The other bill — House Bill 500 — will allocate $500,000 to expand the TBVME’s electronic database. The TBVME said this will allow pet owners in the state to access information regarding complaints, inspections, and enforcement action against veterinary licensees.
TBVME’s Executive Director Brittany Sharkey said that the laws were conceived in response to increasing customer complaints against veterinary practices over the last couple of years.
Both laws go into effect on Sept. 1.
“What SB 2155 does is it allows us to license and regulate veterinary facilities in addition to those individual veterinarians. So I think this really just provides an extra layer of public protection and confidence in the veterinary care they’re receiving. So now when you’re going to look up your veterinarian, you can also after September 1st, go look up your veterinary practice. The veterinarian may have a great reputation, but the practice may not. The practice may have issues and you can find that information out,” Sharkey said.
Dr. Priscilla Bowens, a practicing Texas veterinarian and licensed Texas attorney in El Paso, said that this will streamline how fast a pet owner’s complaint is processed, and will also help veterinarians to move on from a complaint that they were not responsible for.
“Colleagues around the state, and I know I had similar feelings, felt that it took quite a long time for the complaint process to be carried out. And so you would have a veterinarian who may have felt that a complaint wasn’t necessarily warranted, even though pet owners do have that right to file one. But they would have this complaint hanging over their heads for years,” Bowens said.
Bowens also said some in the field have shared concerns that the laws will give Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation too much oversight over the TBVME. However, she said that she believes the goal of the laws is to strengthen the TBVME for when it becomes independent from the TDLR.
“The goal is to continue to get the veterinary agency up to speed so that they can transition to being on their own in the next couple of years,” Bowens said.
In 2023, the Texas Legislature administratively attached the TBVME to the TDLR for a four-year period which is set to end on Aug. 31, 2027. According to the TDLR’s website, this is aimed to identify ways to improve and enhance licensing, inspection, and enforcement policies and procedures for the TBVME.
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