ASAB Proposed Meeting Summary 091819

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o Bryan Stuart (task force chair) prepared a summary of the Task Force’s current work and future plans, which was distributed to the ASAB members in his absence. See Attached.  Procedural Note on ASAB Task Forces o Bob Marotto explained that if an ASAB task force has a majority of ASAB members on it, then the same procedural rules apply to the task force as to the ASAB as a whole. o This means that such Task Force meeting must be noticed, open to the public, and minutes must be published. New Business  Veterinary Practices Act o Lee Pickett summarized the Act o Bob Marotto and others discussed the impact of the Act on Animal Services’ programs o ASAB members agreed that they would like to see repealed the prohibitions on shelters providing low-cost spay/neuter and similar services o Members also discussed the procedural routes for seeking repeal o The Board agreed on the following next steps:  Read the new model Veterinary Practices Act promulgated by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) to compare to North Carolina’s Act  Find out what other states do for comparison  Animal Services, Lee Pickett, and Amanda Schwoerke are to research this issue and report at the next ASAB meeting  Make an inventory of the Act’s negative impacts on Animal Service’s work to present to the BOCC to demonstrate why changing the law is in the County’s interest  Begin introducing the issue to the BOCC and the County Manager  Rabies & Lyme Disease in Orange County o Ed Tiryakian presented on his view that the public health approach to Rabies is seriously flawed since Rabies purportedly has been virtually eradicated as a threat to humans in the U.S. Ed’s objection centered around what he considers the unnecessary euthanasia of numerous animals for testing purposes, etc. o Ed provided data on Rabies, as well as comparison data to other diseases and causes of mortality o Ed argued that public health authorities should be moving their focus to diseases transmitted from mosquito, tick, and flea bites—whereas we are, in fact, killing the fauna that feeds on these insects o ASAB members discussed Ed’s presentation, and asked questions o Ed’s immediate suggestions included:  Orange County should publish the number of animals testing negative for Rabies (currently the County only publishes data on animals testing positive)  The County should publish the incidences of Lyme Disease  The County should publish what it’s trying to do to eradicate Rabies