A senate subcommittee will meet today, Wednesday, May 20th to discuss a bill that would place restrictions on animal shelters here in the state of South Carolina. The topic will be brought up at today’s weekly meeting.

Senate bill 687, also known as the vet bill has stirred up quite the controversy among private practice and non profit veterinarian care.

News 2 was able to speak to the woman who helped write the bill, Dr. Patricia Hill, with SCAV. She told News 2 she worked with one of South Carolina’s leading shelters to come up with these provisions that would make both private practice and non profit veterinarians happy. Dr. Hill says the bill only has a few main restrictions for shelters to abide by.

The restrictions are:

1. Animal shelters would have to keep medical records for animals in their care and maintain those records for 3 years. They would have to explain why the animal came in and how they treated them.

2. Animal shelters could only prescribe medications or administer shots if it came from a licensed veterinarian. Also, the prescription bottles must always be labeled.

3. And low income people could get medical care by the non profit shelters with the discounts on medicine, but everyone else would have to see a private practice doctor.

Each side has their own reasoning for why the bill should and should not be passed. The private practice doctor is looking more at how animals are treated medically, while the non profit doctor is concerned for those owners needing to pay for the care of their animal.

Dr. Lucy Fuller of the Charleston Animal Society says, “how many people out there make minimum wage or even more but still have trouble meeting there own needs much less the needs of their animal. If that animal becomes sick that’s a while other story. we feel that this would restrict access to care for a lot of people.”

Both sides simply want the best for the animal welfare and to be able to care for them the best they can.