The Maddie’s ® team, from left: Drs. Abby Reichard, Lena DeTar, Erin Henry and Emily Boccia. Photo: Suzette Moschetti/CVM
From preventing dog bites to emergency animal fostering and performing cardiology on a budget, this year’s ASPCA Cornell Maddie’s ® Shelter Medicine Conference covered a range of topics for veterinary professionals to hone their skills from July 15-17 at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Now in its 19th year, the event marked their first in-person shelter medicine conference since the pandemic began, and drew more than 300 veterinarians, technicians, clinic staff and students from across the country.
“I’m proud that we can present a conference that even the leaders in our field find useful and engaging,” said Dr. Lena DeTar, assistant clinical professor and interim director of Maddie’s ® Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell.
New this year was an entire track devoted to animal behavior, a growing topic in the field of shelter medicine, with sessions on separation anxiety, risk assessment and more. This included cross-track workshops that offered a deep dive on assessing canine welfare and on balancing medical and behavioral well-being in shelter animals – in addition to programming like wet labs, tracks for specific roles in an animal shelter and more.
