funds to California shelters; Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge, which offers training in building programs to keep families and their pets together; and facility design consultations, to help facilities like animal shelters optimize animal health and welfare. UC Davis also runs the California Veterinary Emergency Team (CVET), a group of volunteers and professionals that rescues California animals affected by disasters. In addition, UC Davis’s veterinarians treat companion and farm animals with the most serious and complex issues, like heart problems. They offer care on-site at UC Davis’s Small Animal Clinic or Large Animal Clinic or travel to nonprofits as needed. UC Davis’s proximity—about 75 minutes from Marin County, one hour from Napa County, and 90 minutes from Sonoma County—means help is close by. “Currently, Sonoma County has a relatively low level of need for outside veterinary care in the event of a disaster. Marin and Napa counties have a moderate level of need for additional veterinary care in such an event. The North Bay counties are three of the more prepared counties with which we have worked,” says Will Burke, associate director of planning for CVET at UC Davis. Burke adds CVET has been working with Cal Fire, fire response experts and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services on a combination of fire training and veterinary training. The idea is to reduce chaos during disasters and ensure minimal impacts on human and animal health during and after such events. “CVET has learned from CARTs in the North Bay, about how the region has handled floods and fires. We also host the California CART Collective Summit, a meeting of CARTs throughout the state. This trains animal rescue organizations on the latest best practices,” says Burke. Dr. Stacy Kraus is chief of service
Will Burke, of UC Davis, considers the North Bay counties well-prepared for vet emergencies.
the group from causes of disease, like viruses. Herd animals depend on other animals for social interaction. A sick animal is likely to spread an infection through a population. Having contact and familiarity with nonprofits allows vets to be a resource for the community. Sonder is also the president and a cofounder of Napa County’s Community Animal Response Team (CART). There are approximately 26
formal CARTs in California counties, which assist with care and feeding of animals affected by disasters. “I can’t imagine practicing veterinary medicine without organizations like Sunrise Horse Rescue and Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch,” says Sonder. “During the 2017 wildfires, so many people lost their homes. Since we worked closely with these nonprofits, we made arrangements for geriatric horses and special needs animals to go to their properties rather than
for the Koret Shelter Medicine Program. She says her team of professional veterinarians and DVM students currently works with six different nonprofits across five counties in Northern California. Right now the focus is on spaying and neutering community cats. These are defined as outdoor, unowned, and free-roaming cats that can be antisocial or social around people. “One of the organizations
“What’s your senior goat protocol?” —a question fielded by Deborah Blum of Goatlandia
stay at emergency shelters and experience stress. We’ve also worked with these organizations to distribute instructions for evacuations and templates to follow in case of emergency.” Efforts at UC Davis support the North Bay The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine provides a number of helpful services to animal rescue organizations in the North Bay. One of these is the Koret Shelter Medicine Program, a privately funded program with four components: a student training program, which provides services to Northern California shelters and rescue organizations; California for All Animals, a grants program that provides
we work with is Whiskers, Tails & Ferals, a cat and dog rescue organization in Napa. We also offer microchipping, vaccination and treatment of fleas and ear mites. Assisting nonprofits with access to spay and neuter services is a great way to provide senior veterinary students exposure to community cat programs. The students get hands-on training in high-quality, high-volume spay and neuter techniques in cats, including feral and pediatric [very young] patients,” says Kraus. Year after year, the shelter medicine and surgery student training program remains one of UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s top-rated clinical rotations.
42 NorthBaybiz
January 2024
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