Press Room

(Alameda, CA - November 2000) Maddie's Fund, a pet rescue foundation whose goal is to help animal shelters throughout the nation establish community-wide adoption guarantees for healthy cats and dogs, announced today that it has awarded $394,000 to support the first year of a pioneering new Shelter Medicine Program at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis. Funding will continue over six years for a total of $2.2 million dollars. The program will be designated Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program after the Foundation's inspiration, a miniature schnauzer named Maddie.

The School of Veterinary Medicine is creating the new Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program to help reduce incidences of disease and behavior problems in shelter cats and dogs. The Program will improve the quality of pet lives during shelter stays, reduce shelter deaths and increase the adoptability of shelter animals. The Program will also develop a well-informed pool of specialists who will be important resources for shelter managers nationwide in years to come.

"This is truly a groundbreaking effort," says Janet Foley, DVM, the Coordinator of Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. "The topics we're focusing on have never been thoroughly addressed in a formal manner by the veterinary profession. Disease problems in shelter environments, facility design, husbandry procedures, shelter animal housing and flow patterns, vaccination regimens and stress reduction have never been a part of pet medicine, which has traditionally been the cornerstone of small animal medicine training."

The new Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program is designed with three major components:

• Shelter Medicine Training - classroom instruction and hands-on shelter work for veterinary students and residents.
• Shelter Medicine Service - diagnostic and medical support for shelters, including animal behavior assistance, a shelter consultation service and symposiums for continuing education.
• Shelter Medicine Research-lab or field based studies to improve medical delivery for shelter animals.
  

"UC Davis is making a huge statement with the launch of Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program," says Maddie's Fund Veterinary Consultant, Dr. Laurie Peek. "Now, a premier school of veterinary medicine is bringing national attention to the increasing importance of animal shelters in society, the necessity to train veterinarians to work in shelters, and the need to make shelters safer and healthier places for our companion animals."

Read the entire twenty-eight page PDF proposal submitted by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.