Board mulls mandating ‘purpose-built’ spaces for veterinary services. Tractor Supply exec says it can’t accommodate floor-to ceiling walls.
LEXINGTON—Some veterinarians who oversee pop-up vaccine clinics in retail stores fear a proposed state regulation could reduce access to preventive veterinary care in rural Kentucky by making such clinics impossible to offer.
The Kentucky Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners during a public hearing Monday heard concerns about a proposal that would change regulatory requirements for Kentucky veterinary facilities.
Those concerned about the regulation—which included representatives from humane societies and licensed veterinarians with the company VIP Petcare—argued the amendment would mean less access to pet vaccines for rabies, canine parvovirus and other diseases.
VIP Petcare, a mobile veterinary services company, operates clinics within retail stores such as Tractor Supply Co. and Feeders Pet Supply. Franklin County Humane Society executive director Kerry Lowary said she feared the proposed regulation could also make it “financially untenable” for nonprofits to conduct animal vaccine clinics.
“I implore the board to reconsider advancing these regulations until it receives input from the organizations offering affordable, low cost spay and neuter services and conducting community-wide vaccination clinics,” Lowary said to the board, meeting at its offices at the Kentucky Horse Park.
What would the regulation do?
The board, made up of licensed veterinarians for large and small animals, oversees the licensing and certificating of the more than 2,600 active veterans throughout Kentucky. The board in July advanced the proposed regulation requiring the “dedicated” space that veterinarians use to treat animals be a “clearly distinct, purpose-built area that is physically and operationally separate from non-veterinary spaces and retail shopping areas.”
Such a space would be required to be confined and enclosed with floor-to-ceiling walls so that “patients are fully contained and separated from persons who are not veterinary personnel or an owner.”
The regulation appears to not affect traditional veterinary offices and mobile veterinary units housed in large vehicles that already meet the space requirements. Government-sponsored vaccine clinics, including mass rabies vaccine clinics sponsored by local public health departments, would be exempt from the regulation.
According to minutes from a July special meeting, the board argued the regulation was needed because of “real issues with public safety,” such as the possibilities that improperly disposed needles could cause an “inadvertent” puncture and that aggressive animals could “lash out” at passersby. The board also argued that temporary veterinary spaces could be a danger to animals that have an adverse reaction to treatments and need follow-up care.
Licensed veterinarians and other representatives with VIP Petcare told the board that their in-store operations are safe, saying that during tens of thousands of “patient encounters” there have been no examples of animals escaping or syringes being mishandled.
A lack of access vs. ‘limited’ risks
Thomas Kerr, the director of veterinary compliance with VIP Petcare, told the board the in-store clinics offered by the company vaccinated more than 4,200 dogs and cats against rabies, conducted 1,700 tests for heartworm and tick-borne disease and microchipped almost 400 pets.
Kerr said the company, which was bought by the company Pet IQ in 2018, has operated in Kentucky for 11 years. Pet IQ was subsequently bought by a private equity firm last year.
“These proposed rules, while well-intentioned, do not align with the real-world evidence of how care is already being delivered,” Kerr told the board. “Instead, they create barriers that reduce access for the very communities most in need. In a state where rural areas already face healthcare challenges for both people and animals, we should be working together to expand, not restrict options for families and their pets.”
Michelle Shane, the executive director of the board, told the Lantern the proposed changes to the regulation came about after questions from veterinarians about “what was allowable, what facilities they needed to register.” She said the board had not intended to single out a particular type of veterinary facility when it proposed the state regulation.
Kentucky, like other states, is grappling with a shortage of veterinarians to care for both pets and large farm animals, though a 2024 report commissioned by the American Veterinary Medical Association found the number of graduates from veterinary colleges nationwide would likely meet future demand.
Katryna Fleer, a licensed veterinarian and medical director with VIP Petcare, told the Lantern a licensed veterinarian is on-site at every in-store vaccine clinic along with other support staff. Fleer and another VIP Petcare employee said the clinics are usually set up either in the “warehouse” section of the store in the back or in a low-traffic section of the store.
“We can’t ask them to build us a ‘purpose-built’ space for what we do,” Fleer said, speaking about the stores the company partners with. “Safety of our teams, of the pets, of the owners, of anybody else in the store, it’s just top of mind.”
Nicole Logan, a senior vice president of Tractor Supply Co., also sent a letter to the board urging it to reconsider changing the regulation because their stores can not accommodate floor-to-ceiling walls for pop-up clinics. Logan wrote the company had not received complaints of danger to customers, their employees or pets because of the pop-up clinics.
Another licensed veterinarian with VIP Petcare Brenda Specht said she travels over multiple states to run the pop-up clinics, each one usually running up to two hours in length. She said she refers pet owners to “full-service” veterinary offices if she finds more serious issues such as “rotting teeth.”
“Very often it’s 30, 40, 50 miles away to go to find somebody who can do good dentistry,” Specht told the board. She acknowledged there is a “limited risk” of public safety issues connected to the clinics, but that it hasn’t occurred yet.
The board can choose to make further amendments to its proposed regulation following the public hearing or keep its proposal the same. From there, the regulation goes before the state legislature’s Administrative Regulation Review Subcommittee where state lawmakers can determine whether a regulation is “deficient.”
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
