At a time when 97% of pet guardians consider pets family but barriers to accessing veterinary care continue to rise, building partnerships and understanding between veterinarians in private clinics and shelters has never been more critical.
“We are all one profession, and the pet population is fluid…Animals move between shelters, rescues, private practices, and emergency hospitals. We’re all working on the same animals,” explains Jennifer Bennett, DVM, MS, KSMP Director of Shelter Medicine Access to Care, in the latest edition of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Association’s (SCVMA) Pulse magazine. “Animals move between shelters, rescues, private practices, and emergency hospitals. We’re all working on the same animals.”
This reminder that private practice veterinarians and shelter veterinarians are part of a single pet care ecosystem is just one insight from an article that clears up common myths about shelter veterinarians and shelter animals. In the piece, Dr. Bennett also shares why the shelter isn’t always the first or best place to take a found animal, how community cat programs positively impact cats and communities, why lowering barriers to adoption is sound practice, why contextualized care is good medicine, and more.
The article challenges veterinary professionals to reconsider preconceptions about shelter medicine while highlighting opportunities for collaboration that ultimately benefit pets and their families across all care settings. The piece also notes the growing recognition of shelter medicine—an American Veterinary Medical Association designated specialty—with many veterinary schools now requiring shelter medicine rotations as part of their curriculum.
Read the full article, “Rethinking Shelter Medicine: Separating Fact from Fiction,” at https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/scvma/pulse_202506/index.php#/p/10.
For a deeper look at contextualized care, watch “Redefining the Gold Standard: A New Framework for More Accessible Care” featuring Dr. Bennett, Dr. Sarah Mantovani, and Kelly Bremken, MSSW.