Thursday, September 13, 2018 by Dr. Kate Hurley and Dr. Julie Levy

Audience: Executive Leadership, Foster Caregivers, Shelter/Rescue Staff & Volunteers

Video Length: 70 Minutes

Not long ago in a land not so far away, the intrepid co-founders of the Million Cat Challenge (MCC) dared to imagine reaching a tipping point for how cats are cared for in our shelters and communities. They engaged more than 1,000 American Animal Shelters and reached their goal of saving 1 million cats a full year early.

The Million Cat Challenge isn't done yet! Its larger, shared mission-- to be able to promise every cat that enters a shelter or rescue the right outcome-- is still waiting to be realized.

Millions more cats will count on the animal welfare community in the years to come, and shelters need tools, knowledge and community support to succeed.

In this free recorded webcast, you'll learn from MCC co-founders Dr. Kate Hurley and Dr. Julie Levy about the lessons learned from the first million and discover how you can be part of locking in and perfecting the methods that work to help cats, the people who care for them and the communities you serve in the next chapter.

Bio photo of Dr. Julie Levy smiling in a blue shirt

About Dr. Julie Levy
Fran Marino Endowed Professor of Shelter Medicine Education, Maddie's® Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida

Dr. Levy obtained her DVM from the University of California at Davis in 1989 and her PhD at North Carolina State University in 1996. She completed a clinical internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston in 1990, and a residency in small animal internal medicine at North Carolina State University, culminating in board certification in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 1993.

After joining the faculty of the University of Florida specialty service in internal medicine in 1997, Dr. Levy began devoting herself to the emerging field of shelter medicine full-time in 2008 when she co-founded Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program. The program focuses on training veterinary students and shelter specialist veterinarians, shelter consultation, and research into solving the problems that challenge animal shelters. She has spent the past decade helping to develop a recognized veterinary specialty in shelter medicine, a dream that finally came to fruition in 2014. She is the co-founder of the Million Cat Challenge.


About Dr. Kate Hurley
Director, Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis

Dr. Hurley began her career as an animal control officer in 1989 at the Santa Cruz SPCA, a private shelter providing field and sheltering services to the community in Santa Cruz, CA. She enjoyed the job more than she ever could have imagined, especially the feeling that she was able to help people take better care of their pets as well as protecting animals every day.

Becoming a veterinarian seemed a logical way to continue serving both pets and people, and after six years she left the Santa Cruz SPCA to attend the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. She soon found she couldn't tear herself away from shelter work, however, and after graduation from veterinary school in 1999, went immediately to work as a shelter veterinarian. Hurley loved that job, too, but in 2001 couldn't resist the opportunity to return to UC Davis to become the first in the world to undertake a residency in shelter medicine. She is now director of the shelter medicine program there.

Hurley co-chaired the organizing committee for a specialty in shelter medicine, a 10-year process that culminated in 2014 with approval by the AVMA of a shelter medicine specialty within the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners. She is a co-founder of the Million Cat Challenge.