P.O. Box 300464
For Immediate Release: January 5, 2012
St. Louis, Missouri
www.mofreedom.org
(314) 604-6621
Contact: Dave Roland (314) 604-6621
Court: Missouri Farmers Must Hire Vets for Basic Animal Care Hired Hands May Be Prosecuted, If Paid St. Louis, Missouri—The Clinton County Circuit Court in Plattsburg, Missouri, has ruled that it can and will enforce a state law that forbids any non-veterinarian to accept payment for providing basic animal husbandry services. The judgment allows Brooke Gray, a young woman with eight years’ training and experience at removing sharp enamel points from horses’ teeth, to continue assisting Missouri’s animal owners—but if she gets paid for her efforts, she will be fined and possibly sent to jail. The Freedom Center of Missouri, which represents Gray, had argued that the U.S. and Missouri Constitutions protect a citizen’s right to earn a living providing basic animal husbandry services. “I just hope that people understand that this case is not just about me,” Gray explained. “The law makes it a criminal offense for a non-veterinarian to get paid for any act that changes an animal’s physical or mental condition. The Board has already determined that this applies to animal massage, castration and routine vaccinations, and the Board’s executive director even testified that the law could eventually be applied to pet grooming!” “Missouri is home to thousands of workers who have for decades safely and affordably helped farmers and ranchers manage their livestock,” said Dave Roland, director of litigation for the Freedom Center. “Their services are essential to this state’s animal agriculture industry. But in the past few years the state Veterinary Medical Board has been threatening to prosecute these workers simply because animal owners are paying them. I’m afraid that Brooke’s case is just the tip of the iceberg.” Gray has never injured an animal and received high praise from the very animal owners the government relied upon to make its case against her, yet the Veterinary Medical Board filed suit against Gray in September 2010, in response to a complaint submitted by a veterinarian in nearby Clay County who sometimes works on horses’ teeth. That same veterinarian, who has