Kathy,

Thank you for your input and I suspect many practitioners have the
same concerns and questions.

Last years' attempt to pass HB 1296 was also an attempt to follow
Illinois legislation, which utilizes a consent/acknowledgement form.
During the public hearing held at the capitol for HB 1296, Lisa,
myself and other concerned therapists and citizens spoke to the
senators with all the arguments you make in your letter.

As you may be aware, despite our efforts, HB 1296 failed in the
Agricultural Committee. The bottom line is… since it failed, we need
to move forward in securing the legal right to practice massage
therapy without the direct supervision of a veterinarian. Failing to
do so could result in animal massage practitioners receiving a cease
and desist order, forced to shut their practice down, hire an
attorney to defend themselves in a court of law, where they could
face jail time and substantial financial penalties – regardless of
where or how the massage training was received.

While HB1296 was written with broad language to include a variety of
alternative modalities, the animal massage bill going before
legislators in 2008 is massage specific.

In order for the senators to feel secure in supporting animal massage
practitioners, we are being required to provide a course of
standardization. The message received loud and clear from the
legislators and veterinarians was that "piece-mealing" an education
together is simply not an acceptable form of standardization.

Since there is no official entity standardizing education
requirements for animal massage practitioners or tracking and
documenting which practitioners have met those requirements, we are
left with only a few options. The most easily accessible option is
to require a certificate from a state licensed or accredited school.
Most schools in operation are licensed and/or accredited, since it is
already a state requirement. However, we realize there are some
schools which have not received licensure or accreditation, so we
will be asking for an 18 month grace period for those schools to get
that accomplished. We will also be asking for a similar grace period
for massage practitioners to meet the requirements.

We do realize the impact this bill will have initially on some
schools and practitioners. However, it far outweighs the possible
repercussions of doing nothing at all. Please realize that current
law states, every time a practitioner lays their hands on an animal
without a veterinarian present, he/she is breaking the law. The law
was written in this way because of the lack of standardization in
many alternative modalities, therefore it is unrealistic to request
the legislators and veterinary community accept a change in law
without compromising and creating a standardization which is
equitable for all parties involved.

I strongly hope you and other practitioners feel confident to support
this legislation and become involved. We all need to support each
other to achieve a common goal of legalizing unsupervised animal
massage, while advocating higher standards in our profession.
Complying with the standardization requirements will only serve our
profession in the long term.

Sincerely,
Corissa Baber