THE ANIMAL CARE SANCTUARY CORNER

SAVE A LIFE

BY TERRI MCKENDRY

Animal Care Sanctuary, ACS, partnered with Staffworks Save a Life Campaign in December. During this monthlong campaign Staffworks matched each donation dollar for dollar up to $25,000. Thanks to the generosity of so many donors, ACS raised over $200,000 allowing us to receive the entire match. Thank you to all of you who so generously participated. The funds raised go to supporting all the programs at ACS including our growing Humane Education Program.

ACS has been blazing a path in humane education for over eight years with the creation of our college internship program for pre-veterinary students. Animal Care Sanctuary is one of only 20% of shelters nationwide that has its own veterinary staff. Animal Care Sanctuary began a STEM internship program in 2014 and has seen a steady growth in interest as more of our interns have gone out in the world to make their mark on veterinary and shelter medicine and have told the story of their time at Animal Care Sanctuary.

The program was born out of conversation with Dr. Jan Scarlett, Founder of the Cornell University Shelter Medicine program regarding the unique challenges that come with shelter medicine. Dr. Scarlett is part of an advisory board which helps guide ACS’s policy and procedures surrounding shelter medicine and animal behavior. in its care at any given time and that all those animals are vaccinated, checked for parasites and disease, spayed, or neutered, vaccinate, and microchipped for identification so that they are healthy and ready for adoption. This kind of fast paced medical practice is not something students will learn in the classroom- it is

hands on learning in the truest sense of the word. This program gives students firsthand experience in the most difficult facet of Veterinary medicine- shelter medicine. Shelter medicine requires students to be prepared to bring their science and technology together to treat conditions that private veterinary practices do not generally see with family-owned pets.

The Animal Care Sanctuary’s Internship Program is designed to give students direct experience in all facets of shelter medicine. Our on-site community clinic and full- time veterinary team allows students to spend their time gaining clinic experience. Our location in an underserved rural community allows students to gain unique perspective on innovative ways to bring access to affordable care to underserved communities.

While the goal of this internship is to help pre veterinary and animal science students grow in their field of knowledge, it is also a program that seeks to make a positive impact on animals and the world by developing the human animal bond and preparing the next generation of veterinary students to work in both private practice and shelter medicine. The program highlights the unique challenges that come with shelter medicine such as rapid spread of disease and the need for quick spay/neuter surgeries when low-cost clinics provide lines of people in need of surgery for their dog or cat.

However, students learn skills that are applicable to both private practice and shelter medicine.

We do not advertise this program and it has grown through word of mouth and once a college/university has had a student complete the program they are anxious to send more students. With

“Animal Care Sanctuary is one of only 20% of shelters nationwide that has its own veterinary staff.”

over 55 applications each semester for just two intern spots, this highly competitive internship program and we receive applications from students in colleges and universities across the county.

The hidden gems of this program are the interns themselves. They come to ACS to learn and leave us better for having had them with us. One of our recent interns came back to us for a few days to conduct research for her senior honors Capstone project. She chose to do her project on Auditory Stress Relief in Shelter Dogs. McKenna’ spent time getting to know seven of our dogs so they were comfortable with her and then she took them to a quiet place at the shelter and played different types of music or noise for them gathering saliva samples before and after playing the music to access their cortisol levels. Her ultimate goal was to find a way to provide inexpensive stress relief to shelter dogs during their stay at the shelter. impact on reducing stress indicating behaviors for dogs. I also noticed that music that is instrumental in nature and has little to no words seemed to During her stay, McKenna adopted Curly. Curly came to us from one of our Georgia transports. We work with a shelter in Georgia through a partnership with Best Friends Foundation. Curly is a wonderful loving dog who just needed some work with his manners. McKenna’s training in our internship program made her the perfect adopter. We knew Curly would flourish in her home. Today Curly is happy and well behaved and always listening to instrumental music.

While the goal of this internship is to help pre veterinary and animal science students grow in their field of knowledge, it is also a program that seeks to make a positive impact on animals and the world by developing the human animal bond and preparing the next generation of veterinary students to work in both private practice and shelter medicine.

Interestingly she concluded that the songs that have a slower tempo and softer tones such as classical and/ or some slow/soft jazz had a significant have a more calming effect as well. Music that was louder and faster paced caused a higher rate of stress.