When we spent half a day helping make Animal Chiropractic legal in Texas

by Amy Hayek, DVM

We spent half a day, traveling to Waco to spend time speaking with Representative Patrick Curry about animal chiropractic. One of the biggest takeaways was that someone outside the profession cannot solve a problem the profession has not organized itself to solve.

This is not to say all is lost. But taking the role of victim is not solving the problem for animals.

So long as there is a mindset that chiropractors can't get patients because of an imaginary barrier, Animal Chiropractic will remain fractured.

When mature professionals want public trust, they don't worry that Association A is better than Association B. They simply offer the public exceptional value without prejudice.

This kind of issue is not isolated in Animal Chiropractic. It happens in other industries as well.

The hearing aid industry has trouble getting doctors to refer outside of the medical establishment.

Yet the person who solves the lack of hearing wins the day.

The public wants consistent, predictable results each time. Dr. Leach, DC has worked toward this for many years, wanting chiropractic to be the same for each patient. But it can't be. Each patient comes from a different environment.

However, in Animal Chiropractic we have figured out that it isn't the treatment that needs to be the same, but the exam can be, so that the public sees the same transformation of their animals from one environment to another.

This is where 'Show Me Animal Chiropractic" comes in during our training. When doctors can demonstrate the same outcome to a client, that client is no longer tied to one doctor but is seeking doctors who can offer the same outcome and demonstrate it in a way the client can understand it.

This is what allows our students and graduates to be able to sell their product with confidence.

This is essential to any business. Not just chiropractic or animal chiropractic. But hearing aids, roof shingles, air conditioning systems, tennis shoes. It is all the same. The variables change slightly, but they are all in the same need of clarification.

Legislation Cannot Replace Professional Responsibility

One of the deeper lessons from our conversation was this:

Legislation is not a substitute for a mature profession policing quality.

No law can completely eliminate every unqualified person who decides to offer a service.

Every profession faces this challenge.

The question is not whether bad actors exist.

The question is whether the profession itself has strong enough systems to identify, educate, and distinguish the practitioners who are committed to excellence.

We talked about horse racing as an example.

In racing, there are clear standards about who can work on horses because the industry has developed systems of accountability. Racing organizations have the resources, the financial motivation, and the structure to enforce those standards.

That is what mature industries do.

They do not wait for government to solve every internal problem.

They build their own standards because their reputation depends on it.

Animal chiropractic faces a similar challenge.

The profession has multiple organizations, different training pathways, and different opinions about what standards should exist. That is not unusual for a growing profession, but it creates confusion for the public.

The owner of a horse or dog does not necessarily know the difference between a highly trained professional and someone with minimal education who uses similar language.

That is the challenge every emerging profession eventually has to solve. And Animal Chiropractic is less than 100 years old.

The answer is not simply more regulation.

The answer is professional maturity.

Strong education.

Recognized standards.

Accountability.

And organizations willing to put the long-term reputation of the profession ahead of short-term individual interests.

A profession earns trust when it demonstrates that it can hold itself accountable. When a community of professionals is more connected, their ability to be held accountable increases.

Opportunities for accountability include Mastermind, Insider's Edge and Base Camp Pro.

Join them to bring Animal Chiropractic together as a profession.