Herd Health: Veterinary Medicine students tackle wild equine care By Logan Burtch-Buus, University Communications
“Some days, we would perform surgeries on 30 or 40 burros,” Simmons said. “Other days, we were administering vaccines, microchipping or helping with blood tests to track potential infectious diseases.” Through a longstanding partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, third-year veterinary students like Simmons can complete one of their required clinical rotations at the Florence facility. While the U of A previously collaborated with the facility on a rotating basis, the value of hands-on, large-animal experience recently led to formalizing the program as a permanent part of the curriculum. John Hall, Arizona lead for the bureau’s Wild Horse and Burro Program and facility manager of the Florence training and holding facility, said the facility not only provides hands- on training and experience for inmates and students, but vital care and medical attention for the animals. The horses and burros are eventually domesticated and made available for adoption. “We have an excess number of animals in almost every state, including Arizona,” Hall
Learning to care for animals at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine often extends beyond the classroom. For students like Jason Simmons, that meant spending time in the corrals of central Arizona, where wild horses and burros roam. Last October and November, Simmons and a handful of classmates spent four weeks providing medical care for hundreds of animals at the Florence Wild Horse and Burro Training and Holding Facility in Florence, Arizona. The facility is a partnership between the Bureau of Land Management and Arizona Correctional Industries, an enterprise of the Arizona Department of Corrections. Together, the organizations operate the Wild Horse Inmate Program, through which inmates help care for the animals as part of their rehabilitation. Simmons called the four-week experience transformative for his veterinary training. Working alongside the staff and inmates who manage the herd, Simmons and his classmates performed a variety of necessary surgeries as well as daily health and wellness checks on the animals.
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