New South Wales Consolidated Acts

VETERINARY PRACTICE ACT 2003 - SECT 11

11 Offence relating to representation of unqualified person to be veterinary practitioner

(1) An individual must not represent himself or herself to be a veterinary practitioner and must not allow himself or herself to be represented to be a veterinary practitioner unless he or she is a veterinary practitioner.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(2) A person must not represent an individual to be a veterinary practitioner if the person knows, or ought reasonably to know, that the individual is not a veterinary practitioner.

Maximum penalty: 50 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(3) Without limiting the ways in which an individual can be considered to be represented to be a veterinary practitioner, a representation using any of the following titles, names or descriptions constitutes such a representation:

(a) the title or description “veterinary surgeon”, “veterinary practice”, “veterinary”, “vet” or “animal doctor”, or any abbreviation or derivative of those words, either alone or in connection with any other title or description,

(b) another title, name or description that indicates, or is capable of being understood to indicate, or is calculated to lead a person to infer, that the person is a veterinary practitioner or is entitled to be registered as a veterinary practitioner,

(c) any title, name or description prescribed by the regulations.

(4) This section does not prohibit the use of the term “veterinary”:

(a) by a person for the purpose only of indicating that the person or another person carries on the business of supplying goods or materials used in connection with veterinary science, or

(b) in relation to a government department, public or local authority or statutory corporation, or

(c) by a person who or body which, because of section 14 (5), is using the term without contravening that section, or

(d) by the holder of a veterinary hospital licence in relation to the premises the subject of the licence.