In recent years, HSI has concentrated on offering advanced veterinary training in the developing world. As high quality education is generally unavailable to veterinary students in developing countries, HSI has found a great need for extensive training of students and newly graduated veterinarians. Many vet students lack basic surgical skills and surprisingly, many students have never even touched an animal upon their graduation from veterinary college.
In addition, HSI has expanded its work in mass sterilization/vaccination programs for street animals as a humane method of animal control. Our multiple animal welfare partners throughout the world have found it very difficult to find suitably trained veterinarians to carry out this work. In response, HSI has helped to develop “training centers” within some of the organizations with which we partner. For example, in Jaipur, India our Animal Advocate partner organization, Help in Suffering, offers an HSI supported ABC (Animal Birth Control) Extension Project, designed to train other Indian and Asian veterinarians in the necessary surgical skills for sterilization procedures as well as other surgeries. The training program has proven to be a tremendous success in providing much needed expertise to the international veterinary and animal welfare field.
HSI has also expanded this veterinary training program into the annual Animal Care Expo. A one-week veterinary internship in the United States offers a state-of-the-art training experience for our international veterinary participants.
