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| The HSUS |
| Dr. Morgan Peterman is a shining example of RAVS's "secret mission." |
By Eric Davis, DVM
Training tomorrow’s veterinarians is part of the RAVS mission—perhaps, the most important part as it gives long-term sustainability to the program. You might say that our “secret mission” is recruiting tomorrow’s veterinarians into the field of animal protection.
There are a number of veterinary specialties competing for the abilities of bright young students. The national organizations for veterinary surgery, internal medicine, academics, research, nutrition, food animal production and zoo medicine all have displays at every veterinary meeting and send speakers to recruit at all the veterinary schools.
That list doesn't even include the military or pharmaceutical companies. With attractive salaries, benefits and working conditions, these career paths are often much more attractive than careers in shelter medicine or the practice in some rural community made famous by James Herriot. Anyone who has any experience at an animal shelter knows the difficulty in getting good veterinarians to work in the poorly supported, often stressful and frustrating world of the unwanted animal.
This point hit home the other morning during a meeting at an equine referral hospital in California where I am a consultant.
One of the doctors was describing his experience at an American Association of Equine Practitioners event held in Kentucky each year. Students from veterinary schools all over the country come to Lexington to hear talks about the advantages of being an equine veterinarian in the 21st century, visit the high tech equine hospitals in the area, and tour the fanciest of thoroughbred breeding farms. Veterinarians who work on valuable show and racehorses come from all over the country to recruit and mingle. The travel and accommodations are subsidized, and students stay at the Embassy Suites.
After hearing the glowing report, I had to chuckle to myself as I pictured the slightly different experience our students have on the road with RAVS. We do get students from all over the United States and Europe, but they visit high unemployment communities on reservations and in Appalachian hollers, where a “good facility” might have two out of three necessities: running water, electricity, or a roof.
The days are chaotic and stressful. Meals are sporadic. And sleeping on the floor is pretty hard. There are discussions about making animal protection a career, but they come at the end of a 14-hour day, usually with some of our patients barking for attention in the background.
Rather than hobnobbing with equine aristocracy, students get to visit little Native American housing projects in places such as Kenel and La Plant, isolated in an endless sea of grass and myriad social problems on the Dakota plains.
There they meet people whose only access to veterinary care is the free clinics RAVS provides. These people have difficulty affording basic necessities for their own families. When it comes to accommodations, one learns to prize a functional toilet, rather than worrying about wide-screen TV or a Jacuzzi in the workout room.
This is not to say that the valuable horses of the world do not deserve veterinary care. Of course they do. But the chances are good that it will not be hard to find somebody to provide it. The challenges in orthopedics and sophisticated internal medicine will attract plenty of bright young minds. The compensation is not bad either.
Despite the perks and advantages of other specialties, there are those who see the challenge of closing the gap between what is now medically possible and what is available to animals who are either unwanted or whose guardians are poor. These are the ones who volunteer for RAVS and take what they learn there to heart.
While the careers of those DVMs and technicians who chose to take on the problems of needy dogs, cats, horses, and other animals are far from easy or glamorous, RAVS has a fair amount of success. The story of Dr. Morgan Peterman, a recent Purdue graduate, gives us hope for the future.
While on a RAVS trip in South Dakota two years ago, Morgan realized that this was her ideal career. She spent her senior year in veterinary school doing more RAVS work and volunteering to work in a free veterinary clinic in the remote Cook Islands of the Pacific. Then, rather than pursuing an institutional internship after graduation, Morgan spent the first four months of her veterinary career on the road with the RAVS team. Besides her abilities in medicine and surgery, she demonstrated the typical concern for individual animals that RAVS regulars are know for.
At the last clinic of the summer in Red Lake, Minn., a community resident brought in a thin and bedraggled kitten named Ninja. Ninja had a swallowed a string that was wreaking havoc in the cat’s intestines. Removing it required a long surgery, in which some of intestines had to be removed and the remainder rerouted. While the kitten came through the surgery as well as could be expected, she was quite weak and needed intensive care.
As there was no way for the owner to provide the necessary care, Dr. Peterman offered to take Ninja back to her home in Minneapolis, two hours north of Red Lake. Morgan spent a week nursing the kitten back to health. Two weeks later, after Ninja was eating well and quite lively, Morgan took the kitten back to the Red Lake Reservation. The young man who had brought Ninja to the RAVS clinic was overwhelmed with gratitude at having his companion well and back home.
In a “normal” practice a veterinarian does not expect to have to turn his or her house into an intensive care unit, or transport patients for hours to return them to their guardians. Of course, they also can expect to come home at the end of a day, watch a movie, sleep in a bed, and not have to stand in line for a cold shower. They get paid better too. Yet there are those like Dr. Peterman who understand the satisfaction that comes from providing a life-saving service to the most needy when nobody else can or will.
As a RAVS consultant, Morgan is already helping us get ready for 2008 and is signed up for several weeks on the road. It is not always clear why they do it, but the young veterinarians keep coming, ensuring the success of our mission.
Eric Davis is RAVS director.
RAVS is a program of The Fund for Animals and The Humane Society of the United States.
