Barnard, 040131 PAAGO, AGO 8

• Case Date: April 01, 1931
• Court: Pennsylvania

Doctor H. W. Barnard AGO 8 Opinion No. 8 Pennsylvania Attorney General Opinions Opinion of the Attorney General April 1, 1931          Veterinary Medicine and Surgery—Castrators—Necessity for license—Act of May 5, 1915, P. L. 248.          Persons engaged in the practice of castration are practicing veterinary surgery within the meaning of the licensing Act of May 5, 1915, P. L. 248, and must be licensed as veterinary practitioners, whether or not they were practicing before that act became effective.          The Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners has no authority to register unlicensed castrators and to permit them to practice upon such registration.          The opinion of the Department of Justice dated Sept. 25, 1915, and reported in 24 Pa. Dist. 1117, has become obsolete by reason of subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court and the Superior Court, and must be over-ruled.          Doctor H. W. Barnard,          Secretary,          State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners,          Lancaster, Pennsylvania.          Sir: We have your request to be advised relative to the status of castrators who were engaged in the practice of castration and in no other form of veterinary medicine and surgery prior to the approval of the Act of May 5, 1915, P. L. 248, and those engaging in such practice since that date.          You have informed us that there are about fifty castrators from whom the Board has been collecting a yearly registration fee, and that the auditors, directed by the Auditor General of the Commonwealth to make an audit of the accounts of your Board, inquired what right you have to collect such fees. This is the occasion for your inquiry.          The history of the statutory regulation of the practice of veterinary medicine and surgery in this Commonwealth begins with the Act of April 11, 1889, P. L. 28, which in turn was followed by the Acts of April 29, 1891, P. L. 36, May 16, 1895, P. L. 79, April 18, 1905, P. L. 209, April 29, 1909, P. L. 277, and May 5, 1915, P. L. 248.          The first Act provided for the registration of persons practicing veterinary medicine or surgery or any of the branches thereof. The amending Act of 1891 added a proviso— " That nothing in this act shall be taken or construed to apply to persons who practice castration of domestic animals and no other form of veterinary medicine and surgery." The same exception was made by Section 10 of the Act of 1895. The Act of 1915, however, repealed all of...