IL HB0017

Adds Section 3.260 to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Systems Act authorizing EMS personnel to provide preveterinary emergency care (oxygen, bandaging, basic first aid) to dogs and cats during emergency responses they are attending to.

Preveterinary emergency care does not apply to emergency calls made solely to tend to an injured animal unless a person's life could be in danger, and EMS personnel must receive appropriate training and employer authorization to provide such care.

EMS personnel have no obligation to provide care to animals or to prioritize animal care over human patients under this provision.

Amends the Veterinary Medicine and Surgery Practice Act of 2004 to add exemption (17) explicitly allowing EMS personnel who provide preveterinary emergency care under the new section to practice without veterinary licensure.

The Act takes effect upon becoming law.