The Leader-Post (Regina)

Friday, November 19, 2004

Equine Dentist Charged With Illegally Importing Horse Sedative

Used by permission from the Leader Post
Copyright 2004

A Glentworth man was fined $16,000 Thursday for possessing a powerful horse sedative unlawfully imported into Canada and illegally disposing of the drugs through his equine dentistry service. An American-trained and certified equine dentist, Grant Douglas MacKinnon, 39, ran into legal trouble after the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association complained to Canada Customs in June of 2001 that he was acquiring prescription equine drugs south of the border.Canada Customs put out an alert asking its border crossing officers to be on the lookout for MacKinnon. He was caught
re-entering the country at the West Popular River border crossing near Coronach Nov. 17, 2001, and found to be in possession of 12 bottles of horse sedatives, which he neither declared nor had a permit to import into Canada. As a result of a subsequent investigation, Canada Customs executed a search of MacKinnon's home Oct. 8, 2003, where they seized business records and additional bottles of this drug.The drug is used to sedate horses during dental surgery, court heard.

MacKinnon, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was unable to obtain a prescription for the particular sedative from any veterinarian in Saskatchewan. But he was able to obtain an open-ended prescription from an American veterinarian, according to the facts read in a Regina Provincial
Court.

He had the drugs shipped to an address in Montana and would bring them across the border.Court also heard that the Veterinary College and the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association doesn't formally recognize MacKinnon's credentials or the practise of unregulated equine dentistry. The association considers equine dentistry as part of the veterinarian's scope-of- practise."They are the kinds of drugs we have a concern with because in Canada they are considered a prescription drug. In other words, these drugs are to be used on the order of a physician or veterinarian,'' said Dr. Curt Hagele, registrar with the Saskatchewan Veterinary Medical Association."The one drug we think he might have been bringing in, while it is used in animals, has some risks for accidental exposure in humans,'' Hagele said, explaining if a person accidentally pricks themselves with a syringe while injecting a horse, the minute exposure to this drug, can be lethal."Our indication is that this individual calls himself an equine dentist and he does work on horses that we would consider likely the practise of veterinary medicine. That is where we get involved. If we have information that someone is practising veterinary medicine while not being a licensed veterinarian we would get involved. In this case this has to do with him bringing these drugs into the country. There was nothing there that would indicate that he was practising veterinary medicine, but the implications are that would be the reason he would be bringing the drugs in,'' he said.MacKinnon was given until the end of 2005 to pay the fine, which was calculated as a percentage of his business profits during the period of the offence.