by Bill Wagnon
photo by Tom Thompson

Each year, the Animal Health Center in Mississippi State's College of Veterinary Medicine treats nearly 7,000 companion animals. These are people's pets such as dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and even horses. To some people, pets are like members of the family. When something happens to that pet, such as serious illness or even death, it's as if a family member has been lost.

To help pet owners cope with the loss of a companion animal, the College of Veterinary Medicine established in 1989 the Fund for CARE, or Companion Animals Require Excellence. This unique program helps veterinarians and their clients overcome pet loss, while at the same time providing much-needed financial support for the college's Animal Health Center.

For Dr. Dan Cantwell, director of the Animal Health Center, the Fund for CARE program he helped establish provides valuable benefits to veterinarians, pet owners, and companion animal lovers.

"The original intent of the program was to allow veterinarians to send a donation to the college in memory of an animal-or client-that had died," explained Cantwell. "In turn, we send a note to the pet owner informing them of the donation in memory of their deceased pet."

Today, the program that originally only targeted contributions from veterinarians is more and more benefiting from companion animal owners who are using the fund to memorialize or honor their pets, or the pets of friends and relatives.

"Companion animal owners sometimes feel touched enough by the gesture of their veterinarian that they also make contributions to the Fund for CARE when they learn that their pets have been memorialized or honored," noted Cantwell. "Others use the program to memorialize or honor the pets of friends and loved ones.

"We even receive donations from veterinary clinic employees in honor of their bosses," he added.

Since the program began, nearly $45,000 has been donated to the Animal Health Center. Cantwell says the contributions are used to provide support for the training, materials, and services that improve the college's care of companion animals, including diagnostic equipment and supplies to treat companion animals in the Animal Health Center, laboratories and expertise to train current veterinary medicine students in the latest methods of companion animal care, clinical studies to learn more about diseases of companion animals, publications for the college's medical library, and referral services for veterinarians who often refer critically ill animals to the hospital on campus for state-of-the-art treatment.

"The fund provides for enhanced care of companion animals treated by the Animal Health Center," said Susan Kuykendall, coordinator of Fund for CARE and an administrative assistant in the College of Veterinary Medicine. "It's a great way to generate donations for a lot of areas. Equipment is our No. 1 deficit, so we have been able to replace and update much equipment because of Fund for CARE."

Fund for CARE pays dividends for veterinarians as well, believes Kuykendall, who says that some 35 veterinarians have participated in the program.

"Potentially, there are hundreds of veterinarians across Mississippi and the South who can participate in this program," she noted. "We already have many veterinarians in Mississippi, as well as graduates of the College of Veterinary Medicine from outside the state, who participate.

The College of Veterinary Medicine's Dr. Vernon Langston treats just one of the nearly 7,000 companion animals brought annually to the college's Animal Health Center. The associate professor is assisted by veterinary medicine student Rebekah List.

"They see the benefits of the program both to their practices and to the level of care that the college is able to give to companion animals. Fund for CARE greatly strengthens the bond between the veterinarian and the client who is grieving the loss of a pet."

Participating veterinarians send to the College of Veterinary Medicine-either monthly or as death occurs-a listing of the names of pets and their owners, along with a minimum $10 donation for each animal. The college then sends a card to the pet owner informing them of the gift in the name of their pet.

"It's a good promotion for veterinarians because their clients and others see the compassion they have for companion animals," Cantwell said. "It often leads to additional donations from the pet owners who follow up the gifts to their pets with gifts of their own."

The fund also benefits from the Animal Health Center's treatment of companion animals.

"Sometimes our own clients appreciate what we have done for their companion animals through treatment in our hospital and feel moved to make a gift to the college," explained Cantwell. "We usually put those gifts in the Fund for CARE program."

Contributions to the College of Veterinary Medicine's Animal Health Center continue to increase because of Fund for CARE. More than 50 gifts from individuals were received in the past five years.

Cantwell anticipates even more growth in the future as word about the program gets out to additional veterinarians and animal owners in the region.

"There are millions of companion animal supporters out there who want to support the work that veterinarians do for companion animals, and some aren't even pet owners," said Cantwell. "The Fund for CARE program is an avenue by which they can support this care and treatment, and we hope to continue to grow the program in the coming years.

"It has been worth our effort to support the Fund for CARE program. We've made a lot of people feel good, and we've made tremendous advancements in the care and treatment of companion animals."