Animal Shelter
Shelter Medicine
Shelter Medicine is a field of veterinary medicine dedicated to the care of homeless animals in facilities such as shelters with the goal of finding them new homes. Shelter Medicine champions the welfare of animals while in shelters.
Koret Shelter Medicine
The Koret Shelter Medicine Program (KSMP) was established right here at UC Davis in 2001 and was the first of its kind in the world.
Historically, "shelter medicine" was more narrowly thought of as the veterinary community, research, and protocols that supported animals living in shelters.
Today, Shelter Medicine is synonymous with shelter leadership and includes all areas of animal shelter management and even extends to community-based programs that support animal welfare.
Dr. Kate Hurley is the Director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program. The Shelter Medicine Program has many outreach programs in the shelter medicine community!
Dr. Kate Hurley has dedicated much of her career to the welfare of cats and dogs.
Program highlights:
- The UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program (KSMP) joined forces with the University of Florida Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program to launch a 5-year campaign to save 1 million cats from euthanasia, aptly named the Million Cat Challenge, and disseminate best practices at shelters across North America. The program leveraged a hybrid of onsite shelter assessments coupled with a robust virtual training program to advance the 5 key initiatives of the challenge.
- The campaign hit the goal of 1 million cats saved a year early, only to double down and hit the 2 million lives-saved mark in the fifth year. The Million Cat Challenge is now the world’s largest and most successful feline lifesaving program and its tenents, the Five Key Initiatives, are now widely accepted sheltering best practices.
- In early 2021, the lives saved counter hit the 3 millionth feline life-saved mark; to celebrate, supporters earned a Guinness Book of World Record title of Most People Toasting Simultaneously Online (not including the cats): https://www.millioncatchallenge.org/
- After a decade of research and onsite implementation at shelters across the globe, KSMP published a research paper demonstrating that the Capacity for Care (C4C) animal sheltering model is a proven way to elevate the welfare of homeless animals in captivity, reduce euthanasia, and increase adoptions. The program has since launched an online Bootcamp to guide shelters through implementation in 8 weeks.
- Capacity for Care draws the connection between improved welfare and improved lifesaving capacity, most specifically by providing adequate housing that reduces stress and, subsequently, stress-induced diseases in confined animals. The KSMP designed and brought to market a cat portal- a small circle that joins two cages- allowing shelters on a tight budget to drastically improve housing without needing all new equipment. In addition to C4C Bootcamp, the program hosts a Facility and Housing Design Bootcamp.
- The KSMP contributes to and maintains the largest online shelter medicine resource library as well as the Shelter Medicine Portal, an online learning community, both available and free to all.
- After many years through shelter development, Shelter Medicine has finally become a boarded specialty in veterinary medicine. It's listed as the second most popular area of focus by new students entering veterinary medicine.
To learn more about the Koret Shelter Medicine Program go to their official website: https://www.sheltermedicine.com/