I worked very hard to become licensed and I feel that taking the tasks that I had to earn the right to perform and letting unlicensed personnel take them on devalues the work I did to become licensed. I would also agree with many other commentors that it's a slippery slope to go down allowing unlicensed individuals to take on the tasks assigned to licensed individuals. Leaving the decision up to DVM discretion makes me nervous too because there's no one but that specific doctor to determine who is or is not qualified among their staff -- there's no regulation or oversight. Please don't misunderstand me, I know many intelligent and competent assistants, I'm not trying to demean them in any way, I just think it would be better to keep this task in the hands of licensed personnel.