Supporting Communities with Limited Access to Veterinary Care

We go beyond our walls to pursue our mission

Featuring an interview with Dr. Karen Ward, Chief Veterinary Officer

Having and caring for an animal should not be a privilege – but when you live in an area that has limited access to veterinary care, the cost of taking care of a pet starts to feel more like a luxury.

To help combat access to care in Indigenous communities, Toronto Humane Society has partnered with Grand River Hospital to conduct 3 animal wellness clinics so far this year. Although this outreach service provides essential, preventative care to animals – it also deeply benefits community members.

“I think of it being beneficial for people in two ways,” shares Dr. Karen Ward, Chief Veterinary Officer at Toronto Humane Society. “One benefit is public health. There are diseases that animals can get that can be transmitted to us, and they are preventable. Rabies is a great example. It’s not a common disease to see in Canada because we’re really good about vaccinating our domestic species.”

“There are other diseases like Lyme disease, which is transmitted by a tick. Lyme disease affects people and dogs. So, if we’re seeing dogs test positive to the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, we can say the ticks in the community is carrying Lyme disease, which also means that community members are at risk,” Dr. Ward continues. “Then we can talk to people about tick prevention.”

The second benefit is helping to preserve the humananimal bond. “There is a lot of scientific evidence supporting that the human-animal bond helps people have happier and healthier lives. There’s a number of different ways that pets can improve health and help mitigate stress,” Dr. Ward explains. “Pets can help

people with depression, and people who are socially isolated and lonely. Especially when we think about the folks that we’re helping at these wellness clinics – a lot of them lack access to many things so they can be even more affected by social isolation and loneliness. Sometimes the human-animal bond is the single most important relationship in somebody’s life who’s really disadvantaged, alienated, and struggling with a lot of problems.”

These wellness clinics provide more than just vaccines, spay and neuter surgeries, and flea, tick and heartworm preventatives – they provide a lifeline that helps to keep more pets with their families.

Preventing One of the Toughest Diseases to Treat – Heartworm

Heartworms are transmitted by mosquitoes and spread to the bloodstream of an animal. They can travel to a dog’s heart, lungs, and associated blood vessels where they grow and reproduce and can cause a blockage in the arteries.

Treatment for heartworm is expensive, hard on the animal, and carries the risk of complications – and if left untreated, it can be fatal.

“Heartworm prevention is one of the biggest things that we do because it is really challenging and expensive for people to access,” Dr. Ward shares. “Dr. Tammy Hornak at Grand River Hospital first started her wellness clinics probably around 15 years ago. At that time, the incidence of heartworm in the community was around 40%. But now, when we go to the same community, we see less than 10% of the dogs who access the wellness clinics are affected with heartworm. In that same community, 36.5% of stray dogs are still testing positive for heartworm.”

This is just one example of the many benefits of having access to reliable and consistent veterinary care. As more communities reach out for assistance, we hope to be there to answer their call and continue to fight for access to care, reduce pet population, prevent transmission of diseases, and improve the lives of animals and communities beyond our walls.