Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 39, September 26, 2024
(a) Each assistant
animal health officer employed by the commission shall be licensed to practice
veterinary medicine in the state of Kansas.
(b) No assistant animal health officer shall
treat or prescribe medication for any horse located at a racetrack facility or
registered to race at a racetrack facility except in an emergency. Each
assistant animal health officer who treats or prescribes medication for a horse
in an emergency shall immediately file a complete report of the circumstances
and veterinary procedure with the stewards and the animal health officer.
(c) No owner or trainer shall
employ or pay any compensation to an assistant animal health officer, directly
or indirectly, while the assistant animal health officer is employed by the
commission.
(d) The duties of each
assistant animal health officer shall consist of the following:
(1) Supervising practicing veterinarians at
the racetrack facility and recommending to the stewards or the commission the
discipline to be imposed upon each practicing veterinarian who violates
commission regulations;
(2)
determining whether each horse is sound to race and, if the horse is unsound,
placing any horse on the veterinarian's list and removing any horse from the
veterinarian's list when, at the assistant animal health officer's discretion,
the placement or removal is proper. Each horse shall remain on the
veterinarian's list a minimum of four days. No horse shall be allowed to race
before its name is removed from the veterinarian's list;
(3) establishing a procedure for and
supervising the collection of urine, blood, or other specimens from horses, as
designated by the assistant animal health officer, the stewards, or commission
and maintain identification records for the specimens as required by the
commission;
(4) supervising the
procedure for witnessing, sealing, and delivering each test specimen to the
official test laboratory;
(5)
reporting immediately to the animal health officer the name and tattoo number
of each horse at a racetrack facility that dies or is humanely destroyed and
the reason for the death;
(6)
being at the racing secretary's or stewards' office to report to the racing
secretary or stewards on the assistant animal health officer's inspection of
horses and each horse's condition before scratch time on each race day at the
time designated by the stewards;
(7) with the permission of the stewards,
scratching a horse at any time before the horse enters the starting gate;
(8) directing a horse to be
isolated or declaring the horse ineligible to race if it has symptoms of
chronic unsoundness. If a horse is declared ineligible to race, the assistant
animal health officer shall report this fact to the stewards, who shall write a
formal ruling against the horse and write the reason for the ruling on the
horse's registration papers;
(9)
accompanying and observing each field of horses from the time the horses enter
the paddock to be saddled for the race until they are dispatched from the
starting gate;
(10) inspecting
horses in the paddock after the finish of each race;
(11) in an emergency, treating or humanely
destroying any horse that is so seriously injured that the assistant animal
health officer believes the action is necessary. Each horse owner, if present,
and trainer at the racetrack facility shall consent to the assistant animal
health officer's humane destruction of a seriously injured horse; and
(12) performing other duties
prescribed by the animal health officer, the stewards or the commission.
