The senior director of research and development for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will headline the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine’s fifth annual Shelter Medicine Seminar, taking place Jan. 27, 2013. Emily Weiss, Ph.D., CAAB, will serve as the seminar’s keynote speaker. Dr. Weiss has focused her career on improving the welfare of animals in zoos and shelters. She has developed several assessment tools for shelters, including Meet Your Match, Canine-ality, Puppy-ality and Feline-ality, an adoption program for shelter cats that has helped to decrease euthanasia, increase adoptions and decrease returns of cats in shelters, the university noted. Dr. Weiss is also a section editor for the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science and has developed enrichment and behavior modification programs for animals in shelters as well as a focus on companion horses. The seminar is hosted by the student chapter of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians and is open to veterinary professionals and anyone who works for an animal control facility, humane society or animal rescue group. The event drew 124 attendees last year. “The many thank-you emails from attendees, and the fact that our number of attendees has doubled, are evidence of how important this shelter medicine conference is to the community,” said Heather Tucker, a third-year veterinary medicine student and president of the UGA Shelter Medicine Club. “As the only shelter medicine conference in Georgia, we strive to provide the most up-to-date information at no cost to attendees. Our goal is to help improve shelter animal care in Georgia and the surrounding area.” Other scheduled presenters include: • Janet Martin, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, a staff veterinarian at the college and developer of the college’s new shelter medicine program. • Andy Moorhead, DVM, Ph.D., an assistant research scientist at the college who studies potential resistance to canine heartworms drugs. • Sonja Zabel, DVM, Dipl. ACVD, an assistant professor of veterinary dermatology at the college. • Bill Wise, director of Walton County (Ga.) Animal Control. • Gerryll Hall, a private practitioner in Georgia and lead veterinarian at Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health/Merck’s VetReach Program. Registration is free and runs through Jan. 13, 2013. Online registration is available at www.vet.uga.edu/student_clubs/sheltermed.seminar and more information is available by emailing Heather Tucker at ugasheltermedicineseminar@gmail.com. <HOME>
