Veterinarians are fighting a King County proposal to mandate the release of rabies vaccination records they see as an invasion of privacy and a shortcut to penalizing owners of unlicensed pets. The county says it wants greater compliance with the law, and hopes to reach an agreeable approach with vets.
King County Animal Services canvasses residents, educating pet owners about a requirement to license all cats and dogs eight weeks or older and making licenses available for purchase.
Animal Services formed in 2010, and contracts with 25 of King County’s 39 cities. Pet licensing fees fund about 50 percent of the agency’s operations, but the compliance rate remains low at about 21 percent, said Cameron Satterfield, a spokesman with the King County Department of Executive Services.
“What we’re looking into is a proposal to have veterinarians report their rabies vaccination information to King County,” he said. “We’ve been working with the veterinary associations, the Puget Sound Veterinary Medical Association is one of them in particular, to try a voluntary program to have them educate their pet owners who come into their offices about the importance of pet licensing.”
Pet licensing allows owners to be reunited with lost animals, earns lost pets a free ride home when found and funds shelter care, dangerous and nuisance animal responses and investigating cases of reported animal cruelty or neglect. The fine for not licensing pets is $125, and $250 for pets that have not been spayed or neutered.
King County wants to apply a mandate for releasing rabies vaccination information under its board of health rather than its animal control code, which would force all 39 cities to comply and avoid a “patchwork quilt” of reporting, Satterfield said. Another benefit would be finding out what the rate of rabies vaccinations is in the county, which is not currently known, he said.
While veterinarians support pet licensing, many oppose releasing the information because they say it violates doctor-patient confidentiality and may discourage pet owners from vaccinating their animals, said Kent Thomazin, president of the Puget Sound Veterinary Medical Association.
“We’ve met with King County initially and they had a general meeting for a lot of general owners and practitioners in the fall to introduce the idea, and it was certainly met with a certain amount of resistance,” Thomazin said.
Thomazin said vets object to King County being provided with vaccination records to compare them to its licensing database to find those not complying with the law.
“We as veterinarians don’t feel like it’s our job to provide those databases so they can enforce licensing,” Thomazin said, adding provision of those records will put a strain on practitioners’ resources and result in many pet owners skipping out on rabies vaccinations. “Decreasing compliance for rabies vaccinations isn’t a good thing for public health.”
Satterfield said the county is looking at educating pet owners about pet licensing and providing them with resources to come into compliance with the law, but would not immediately begin issuing fines to those who are not.
He said notices would be sent to those who have not licensed their pets, and there would eventually have to be an enforcement component if owners do not comply with the law. King County has heard the concerns of veterinarians, he said, and is working to alleviate them.
Thomazin said the PSVMA has been contacting its members to encourage them to express their concerns to their district councilmembers.
Brandon Macz: 425-453-4602, bmacz@bellevuereporter.com
