Before you think about raising fees you need to consider what benefit there is to the PUBLIC. My understanding is that a veterinary board exists not only to license and regulate vets but also to ensure standard of care by its licensees -- both are matters of PUBLIC health and safety. Reading D Carey's account of the death of a kitten and the subsequent dismissal of a valid complaint makes me wonder if the VA vet board even knows what it's doing. How is the PUBLIC supposed to trust a board that lets a situation like that go undisciplined and the vet unaccountable for any part of that tragic incident? Shameful.

Before you start raising fees I would take a good look at your complaint review process and ask how it can better serve the PUBLIC, starting with making the complaint process a fair and equitable one. The fact that the complainant cannot see the vet's response to a complaint is inexcusable, especially when so many other states allow it. Do you expect the PUBLIC to trust a system that is so secretive that it withholds that type of information from the very victim that was affected? Again, shameful.

I would say no to raising fees until and unless you can show it benefits the PUBLIC in some substantial way. You remember the PUBLIC, don't you? We're the ones who pay your salaries as vets.

Thank you.