Gray, individually and under the business name B & B Equine Dentistry, has unlawfully floated horses‘ teeth in the state of Missouri for compensation. Facts Regarding Veterinarians’ Availability to Provide Dental Care 127.
No witness testified that he or she had ever been unable to find a
veterinarian to care for a horse‘s teeth. 128.
Sterling Silver testified that he had previously taken his horses to have
their teeth floated by veterinarians, but that ―they didn‘t do the quality of job as [he] thought they should,‖ and that ―You can always find somebody to do the job, but you can‘t find the right person.‖ 129.
Dr. Bruce Whittle, a veterinarian who is the immediate past president of
the Missouri Veterinary Medical Society and chair of its Equine Committee, testified for the Petitioner about a study he performed on behalf of the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association regarding the availability of veterinarians to perform equine dental services in Missouri. 130.
Dr. Whittle described a study that purported to extrapolate Missouri horse
owners‘ demand for equine dental services by applying what he believed to be a national average for the percentage of horses needing dental care (5.3%) to a 2001 estimate of Missouri‘s horse population (200,000). Whittle then estimated the number of Missouri veterinarians providing dental services (75) and calculated the average number of horses each veterinarian would need to see each week in order to meet the presumed demand (2.7). 131.
Cross examination revealed that Dr. Whittle‘s study was irredeemably
flawed:
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