FAIRVIEW, Alta. – Three animal health technology students in northern Alberta plan to go far with the work experience part of their education.
Keli Pawlick is doing her work experience at Pets Unlimited, a three-story emergency animal clinic and shelter in San Francisco.
Melanie Young and Brittany Gushue are spending six weeks at Best Friends, a 33,000-acre animal sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals in Utah.
“We’re going to be in a regular clinic for the rest of our lives,” said Young, who was so inspired by stories about Best Friends that she returned to school at age 34 to study animal health technology at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology’s (NAIT) Fairview campus.
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“I was blown away that there was a place like Best Friends around,” said Young, who was walking dogs at a veterinary clinic in Canmore, Alta., when she heard about the sanctuary.
Best Friends recently made headlines following the broadcast of a National Geographic television special about Dogtown, one of the animal areas within the Best Friends sanctuary. The sanctuary also has special areas for cats, donkeys, horses and exotic animals.
Animals that aren’t rehabilitated or adopted spend the rest of their lives at the shelter. Some of the animals that end up at the Best Friends Animal Society have been rescued from Iraq, Ethiopia and hurricane areas in the United States and Central America.
“I wanted to get educated so I could work there.”
During a first year communications course, Young’s talk about Best Friends inspired Gushue to look into the centre. She had worked at the SPCA in Fort McMurray, Alta., but enrolled to learn more about the science behind animal health.
“It was a natural progression to become an AHT,” Gushue said.
The college’s animal health technology program is in its 35th year at the Fairview college.
Now affiliated with NAIT, this fall the college will become part of Grande Prairie Regional College.
Best Friends usually takes only one animal health technologist for a practicum placing, but Young and Gushue put a proposal together that would allow them to share the placing. For three weeks, Gushue will work in the clinic while Young does volunteer work at the sanctuary such as walking dogs and grooming horses. They will switch after three weeks.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Young.
Pawlick said she learned about the San Francisco-based Pets Unlimited from her grandparents, who adopted a dog from the pet centre.
One floor of Pets Unlimited is dedicated to an emergency clinic, another floor is a shelter and a third is dedicated to alternative therapies for sick animals.
Pawlick chose her practicum placement to give her hands-on experience working in an emergency clinic.
“I hope they’ll be things you don’t get at a regular vet clinic,” said Pawlick, who will be living on her grandparent’s house boat.
All three women credit Fairview’s two-year training program for giving them the skills and confidence to apply for unusual placements.
“Now when you see a situation, you know how to deal with it better,” Gushue said.
“When you don’t have knowledge, you’re free floating.”
Another Fairview grad will be doing her practicum at the Houston Zoo, two are going to equine veterinary practices, four to mixed animal practices, three to small animal practices and one to a caged and exotic pet practice.
