Three-year, $92,000 PETsMART Charities Grant to Fund Mobile Veterinary Service
Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences has received the
first portion of a three-year grant from PETsMART Charities, Inc. that
will support a mobile veterinary clinic to bring veterinary care to
companion animals in shelters and animal rescue facilities as well as the
pets of homeless and housebound people. The college already has received
the first-year’s award of $30,000. The total grant amount is for $92,000
to be paid over three years.
The grant will partially support the PETsMART Veterinary Ambulatory
Community Service-Learning (PETsMART-VACS) Program at the veterinary
college – the first and only veterinary college in Southern California.
The PETsMART-VACS will be an integral service-learning component of the
college’s curriculum involving students and licensed veterinary faculty
and will provide basic medical and wellness care to disadvantaged animals
in the Inland Valley area.
“”This program will give many animals a second chance at life or health,””
said Lara Rasmussen, DVM, MS, DACVS, director of surgery and clinical
skills at the College of Veterinary Medicine. “”It also will serve as a
learning arena for clinical skills and community service. We want our
students to be masters of their profession and to know when, where and how
to help the animal and human communities they have chosen to serve.””
Services provided by the mobile small animal clinic will include
preventive medicine services such as spay/neuter, physical examinations,
vaccinations, microchipping, heartworm/virus screening and presurgical
evaluation. The clinic also will offer treatments such as deworming,
behavioral assessment and recommendations, diagnosis and treatment of
illness, as well as client education.
It is PETsMART Charities’ mission to end the unnecessary euthanasia of
adoptable companion animals as a means of controlling pet overpopulation.
PETsMART Charities primarily provides financial grants for new programs
that assist in ending unnecessary euthanasia through proactive adoption,
spay/neuter, behavior and pet identification programs. For more
information on PETsMART Charities, call toll-free 1-800-423-PETS (7387).
For more information on admission to Western University’s College of
Veterinary Medicine, call (909) 469-5485.
