Tufts, City Schools to Help Pets in Need

today announced a collaboration with Worcester Technical High School (WTHS) that will bring a low-cost primary care clinic to pets from underserved areas throughout the Greater Worcester Area.

Located on the high school's campus on Skyline Drive in Worcester, the clinic will pair fourth-year veterinary students in the Cummings School’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program with students in the veterinary assistant program at WTHS. This is believed to be the first time a veterinary school has chosen a high school clinic venue to facilitate an educational and outreach partnership.

Work has begun on the clinic space, and an opening is anticipated in late spring.

“This collaboration represents a different way of looking at service to the community, care for needy animals, and educating compassionate, knowledgeable veterinary professionals,” said Deborah T. Kochevar, DVM, PhD, dean of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine., in a prepared statement.

“Animals and their owners, and students from both schools, win with this model,'' she said.

The veterinary school’s involvement in the Greater Worcester area has increased since 2009, when students and faculty began to offer an annual free vaccination and wellness clinic at Worcester Housing Authority residences. That effort has since grown to serve 200 pets each year at six WHA sites.

“By pairing veterinary assistant students alongside professional DVM students, we will be able to do more than just treat the critically underserved pets among the neediest communities in the area,” added WTHS Principal Sheila Harrity in a prepared statement. “We will demonstrate to our students the career possibilities beyond high school while giving them hands-on education.”

By requiring proof, for example, of government assistance or residency within a residence at the Worcester Housing Authority, the clinic will focus exclusively on individuals who do not have the means to bring their pets to another clinic in the area.

Once approved, pet owners will have access to vaccinations, well-being visits and simple surgeries at significantly reduced fees that are just enough to cover the clinic’s costs.

In addition to providing hands-on experience for both groups of students and pet owners from disadvantaged backgrounds, the clinic is likely to create a public health benefit by increasing the number of pets who are vaccinated against communicable diseases like rabies, as well as providing surveillance data on outbreaks of animal disease that otherwise might go undetected.

The idea of the clinic grew over time from both sides of the collaboration, but spearheading the concept were two faculty members in the Cummings School’s Department of Clinical Sciences. Associate Professor Elizabeth A. Rozanski, DVM, and Professor John E. Rush, DVM, first conceptualized a clinic to give veterinary students more primary care clinical experience while serving needy animals.

Students in the technical high school’s veterinary assistant program will take increasingly larger roles as they progress through the four-year curriculum, learning safety and hygiene protocols, scheduling appointments, handling transactions, helping to take histories and steady animals during exams and supervise the younger students in the program.

By working alongside veterinary students under the supervision of WTHS and Cummings School personnel, veterinary assistant students learn valuable skills, Harrity said, and may also aspire to become veterinary technicians or veterinarians themselves.