Well-known Oklahoma rodeo star Bobby Griswold is complaining a new law is absurd after his arrest on complaints of doing illegal dental work on a horse.
His arrest has caused an uproar in the state's horse industry, with his supporters contacting legislators to try to get the law repealed. Some are listening.
"It's a big mistake," said Rep. Charles Key, R-Oklahoma City. "We need to fix that because it's way too harsh."
Griswold, 40, of Geary, Okla., is one of the nation's top professional saddle bronc riders. He finished the 2008 season at the National Finals Rodeo in December. As a second job, he works as a trained equine dentist.
On March 4, the cowboy became the first person in Oklahoma arrested under a new law that makes it a felony to do dental work on horses without a veterinary license. Before Nov. 1, a violation of the law had been a misdemeanor.
Griswold was arrested after meeting with an undercover state investigator in the parking lot of an Oklahoma City convenience store, officials said.
Griswold then injected a horse and performed dental work, reported the investigator for the Oklahoma State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. He has not been formally charged and is free on bail.
Officials said they acted after getting a complaint. Officials said Griswold had been warned four times by letter to stop.
In a statement, Griswold said he is preparing a vigorous defense.
"My family and I have received unbelievable support through this situation, and it all means so much," Griswold said. "We are truly blessed."
His supporters say non-veterinarian equine dentists are essential because there are not enough vets to care for the thousands of horses in the state.
Supporters say lay equine dentists have done such dental work -- known as teeth floating -- for hundreds of years. Griswold's supporters also are complaining he was set up.
The sponsor of the law, Rep. Brian Renegar, D-McAlester, said, "These guys have been breaking the law for years and years."
He said prosecutors would not file charges against illegal horse dentists when a violation was only a misdemeanor, but "they can't ignore a felony."
Renegar, a veterinarian, said he was asked to sponsor the legislation by the state Board of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. He said it passed in the Legislature without a single "no" vote.
He said the law protects horses because only vets are supposed to be able to administer the sedatives needed to work on teeth.
Done improperly, the horse could die, he said.
"It's illegal for anyone but a veterinarian to have these drugs in their possession," he said.
The legislator also said vets are trained to notice problems in a horse's mouth, such as symptoms of cancer, which a lay dentist would miss.
"It's not just grinding teeth," he said.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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Equine Dentistry
The legislator from Oklahoma who sponsored the bill making it a Felony is an idiot. His statement against Bobby Griswold is absurd. He says that vets are trained to recognize problems like cancer and other things in a horses mouth and lay dentists are not. That is completely incorrect. Anyone person specializing in one subject is going to be more experienced in that subject for the most part. There are bad vets and bad dentists. But the majority of Vets are not trained highly in dental. Lay dentists are usually much more advanced and the Equine Dental field is full of some of the best Denticians you can find anywhere. It is obvious that Rep Brian Renegar has little experience with equines and very little with dental matters. He may be a legislator but that doesn't qualify him to be correct in this situation. The great problem is that many Veterinarians have been used to being the only game in town for decades. A general practitioner if you will. This is the same fight fought decades ago with human Dr.s and specialists. They wanted to retain all the business. And they claimed these same arguments against specialists. But isn't modern medicine glad we let them practice. Well the Equine world needs specialist dentists like the Human world needed human Dentists. How would you like your teeth pulled by your Barber still, or even the family Dr. or child Doctor or OBGYN ? This is what this amounts to. GREED by the Veterinarian world. Go ahead and tell the horror stories that exist in this field, but don't forget to include the horror stories that exist in the Veternarian world and or the Human physician world!. Like I said before, there are bad professionals everywhere. But 99% are great and there customers are Happy. Don't let these Vets harness the advancement of the Equine world by stopping progress for their own monetary gain. Note: Lay dentist is anyone who hasn't graduated from Veterinarian school as a DVM. But almost all EQ/DTs are graduates of Eequine Dental Schools specializing in ONLY Equine Dentistry. The same as your Dentist never learned to do brain surgery. It is also false to say that only vets can give vaccines or sedate. Vets give both to customers with no formal training every day. And you can buy vaccine and anti-biotics over the counter for livestock everywhere livestock supplies are sold.
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