Bill proposes foreign vet licenses be certified locally

The Animal Clinical and Business Operations Law made its first appearance at the parliament’s plenary session yesterday. The first reading of the bill raised several questions on various related topics.

The bill proposes that future veterinarians will need to hold at least a Bachelor’s degree in the discipline and a license to practice in a jurisdiction outside of Macau, in order to apply for a license to work as a veterinarian in the city.

Secretary André Cheong for Administration and Justice indicated that during the first phase, perhaps licenses only from specific jurisdictions may be certified. At the same time, the bill also proposes to establish a licensing council to determine whether a vet meets the requirements.

On this matter, lawmaker Chan Iek Lap, who is a medical doctor, raised a question regarding the possibility of prospective veterinarians obtaining a license abroad. He took his own profession as example, saying that not all jurisdictions are willing to issue a license to non-local medical graduates.

Responding to the question, Dr Ng Sao Hong, veterinarian at the Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM), said that the mechanism for certifying external licenses was introduced after consideration of laws in other jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong. Ng added that obtaining an external license should be feasible. For example, she said, mainland China has a specific exam for vetinarians. Therefore, local residents should be in easy reach of the licensing system.

Furthermore, lawmaker Ma Io Fong was concerned with the proposal on conditional continuing education or training.

In reply to Ma’s question, Cheong explained that considering veterinarian training programs are not widely available in Macau, the proposed legislation does not make the requirement mandatory.

Adding to Cheong’s answer, Ng said that with IT advancing to a greater extend, future veterinarians may even have a wider choice of programs.

Continuing education or training will add points to license renewal, the officials added.

Lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho questioned why clinical facilities are referred to as clinical venues in the bill. He considered this to be unprofessional.

In response, Cheong explained it would be a huge leap from no-law if different types of animal clinical facilities are separately legislated.

Several lawmakers also asked why the bill is still relying heavily on printed documentation when the government, in particular Cheong’s sector, is promoting e-governance and procedures.

Cheong explained under the E-governance Law, certain procedures will be digitized but will not necessarily be legalized as part of the legislation or independently.

The future law will also govern animal service and beauty centers. In response to lawmakers’ questions, Cheong stressed that beauty centers helping their clients feed their pets medications prescribed legally elsewhere will not be considered illegal. They will also be allowed to deworm animals as the medicine is either ready-for-use or prescribed by licensed veterinarians.

The legislation will be unlikely to destabilize Macau’s pet cityscape as Ng revealed that 80% of existing veterinary centers and animal service centers are on the bar. She added that the city now has 40 veterinarians working in the government and 54 in private practice, with one-third of the latter being non-local residents.

The figure of veterinarians in private practice is not 100% accurate because, as Ng explained, registration is currently on voluntary basis.

Cheong added that this bill, even if passed, will not have authority over animal or pet cafes. This is within another area of authority of the IAM, however. Moreover, the selling of food and pets in a single establishment is forbidden under competent laws, the senior official added.

The bill does not restrict the residency of future veterinarians to Macau.

After the lengthy debate on these topics, the bill was passed at the plenary with 29 votes in favor, no votes against and two votes abstention. The two abstaining votes were casted by Coutinho and his teammate Che Sai Wang.

After voting for the bill, Ron Lam made a voting declaration, justifying his position of supporting the bill as a step to more supervised medical services for animals. However, he added, the omission of several measures, such as the mandatory insertion of microchips and a ban on commercial animal breeding, make the bill less satisfactory. During his voting declaration, he called for the inclusion in the bill of several proposals, including mandatory chipping of animals, banning commercial breeding and more in-depth study on mandatory neutering of retailed animals.

Cheong: The legislation has four aims

In his introduction to the bill, Cheong highlighted four goals for the legislation, before elaborating on each.

The senior official said that the legislation is necessary so as to establish a system for registration, licensing and disciplinary supervision of veterinarians, as well as a veterinarian professional council.

For the time being, there is no official English name for the council.

In addition, the legislation will help clarify two types of venues, namely clinical venues and animal business venues. If the bill gets passed at the parliament, these venues will see their specific licensing and monitoring systems.

That said, venues will have their licenses suspended or even terminated if deemed necessary.

Furthermore, a system for disciplinary supervision and administrative punishments will also be set up. The bill proposes the mechanism for disciplinary procedures against veterinarians should they be alleged of committing clinical malpractices. Proposed punishments range from written warnings to the termination of licenses.

Concerning veterinarians who are already in practice before the expected promulgation of the law, buffer measures are proposed in the bill. This is also an aim of the legislation, according to Cheong.

He introduced that these veterinarians will be eligible to file for registration within a given period. The same will apply to animal business venues.