The Louisiana Board of Veterinary Medicine was officially created in 1966 by the Louisiana Legislature under Acts 1966, No. 35, §1, with the law going into effect on July 1, 1967. The Board’s mandate is to promote the public health, safety and welfare by safeguarding the peoples of the State of Louisiana from incompetent and dishonest practices of veterinary medicine; to encourage more effective utilization of the skills of licensed Doctors of Veterinary Medicine for the health and welfare of animal patients in the delegating of certain veterinary health care tasks to qualified Registered Veterinary Technicians; and to provide the most humane restraint, capture and death possible for unwanted, diseased, dangerous, and discarded animals with the training of Certified Animal Euthanasia Technicians for animal control.

This mandate is carried out by enforcing its jurisdiction of interpreting and implementing applicable laws, and the rules it promulgates, regarding the acceptable standard of veterinary care in Louisiana. The Board has sole and sovereign authority in Louisiana over the practice of veterinary medicine as granted to it by the Legislature, and the right to practice veterinary medicine is a privilege as set forth by the Legislature and public protection is the Board’s highest priority in exercising its licensing, regulatory, and disciplinary functions.

Effective August 1, 2018, the Board was moved to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.