Athens, Ga. – The third annual UGA Shelter Medicine Seminar will be held at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine Jan. 30.The all-day event is focused on the best management and medicine practices for local and regional animal shelters.This year, personnel representing animal rescue groups, animal control facilities and humane societies in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are encouraged to attend.
The event is hosted by the college’s student chapter of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians and the Animal Welfare Club.
“The purpose of the UGA CVM Shelter Medicine Seminar has always been to educate shelter personnel and rescue groups, but it also is an important networking opportunity,” said Natalie Duncan, a second-year veterinary student and president of theStudent Chapter of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians. “This seminar is aboutlearning from each otherand forming lasting bonds between community businesses, shelters and the UGA CVM. With a network in place, one can only imagine the goals we can accomplish.”
This year’s keynote speaker is Rachel Michaud, a certified animal welfare administrator and current program coordinator for Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida.Michaud has worked with animal shelters for almost 10 years improving nonprofit shelter operations, management, administration, and programs including adoption, foster care, volunteer services, and low-cost spay and neuter. She is particularly interested in progressive management strategies in animal welfare agencies and innovative, replicable lifesaving programs.Michaud will present two lectures on shelter management.
Other scheduled presenters include: Dr. Leticia S. Dantas Divers, a veterinary behaviorist, who will discuss behavior problems in cats; Dr. Patrick Hensel, a veterinary dermatologist, who will discuss parasite monitoring and control of mange; and Dr. Andy Moorhead, a veterinarian and research scientist, who will discuss diagnosis and treatment of heartworm disease.Dantas Divers, Hensel and Moorhead are all faculty at UGA.
The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1946, is dedicated to training future veterinarians, to conducting research related to animal and human diseases, and to providing veterinary services for animals and their owners.Research efforts are aimed at enhancing the quality of life for animals and people, improving the productivity of poultry and livestock, and preserving a healthy interface between wildlife and people in the environment they share.The college enrolls 102 students each fall out of more than 560 who apply.For more information, see www.vet.uga.edu.
The current UGA College of Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital, built in 1979, serves more than 18,000 patients per year in one of the smallest teaching hospitals in the United States.The college is currently working to raise $15 million toward building a new Veterinary Medical Learning Center, which will include a new teaching hospital as well as classrooms and laboratories that will allow for the education of more veterinarians.The goal is to increase enrollment to 150 when the Veterinary Medical Learning Center is built.http://www.vet.uga.edu/giving/campaign.php
