The UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine raised $1.3 million in grants, gifts and pledges to help fund a Shelter Medicine Program, according to a university press release.
The program is designed to help counteract the lack of information many shelters have concerning proper care. The program will support shelters’ work, expand their knowledge base and help them learn new ways to improve shelter care through experience, according to the release.
Currently the clinical assistant professor of shelter medicine at the SVM, Sandra Newbury, will oversee the new complete Shelter Medicine Program. Newbury has worked with shelters worldwide to help manage health and release rates.
Newbury said the program’s students will ensure a brighter future for shelter medicine.
“We try to study factors that will benefit each individual animal as well as looking for solutions that can have really dramatically beneficial effects for entire populations and communities,” Newbury said in an email.
The program will easily supplement many student training and community outreach goals, Newbury said. The current elective lectures are also available online for shelter staff, volunteers and the public to encourage a wide array of participation.
New courses, rotations and studies will be offered in the program as electives for SVM students. Newbury said the SVM is fully capable of accommodating the new program’s needs and is developing a capital campaign to create more physical space.
The funds will support Newbury’s position as well as a new outreach veterinarian, a clinical research assistant and a program manager. Three fellowships for practicing shelter veterinarians in the program’s first year will also be made available by the funds, according to the release.
“We have been hoping to have this sort of a complete program that includes teaching, training, clinical studies and outreach at UW for many years,” Newbury said in an email. “These new funding opportunities along with the University's commitment to a position in Shelter Medicine [have] finally made that dream a reality.”
