Students in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary are making house calls to pet owners in their community who can’t afford regular care for their animals.

Third year students were able to apply what they learned in the classroom to real world scenarios during six free vet clinics that were offered to people below the poverty line who own pets.

The U of C partnered with CUPS for the pilot project and 32 cats and dogs and their owners, who were once homeless or at high risk of becoming homeless, took part in the initiative.

“Our program is a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program and traditionally most vet programs are three years, mostly classroom work, one year out in clinics, and what we wanted to do is to try and get them out into the real world much earlier on, so right in third year, that’s when this program takes place,” said Serge Chalhoub, from the U of C Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

"For those who have experienced poverty, homelessness and the social isolation that often accompanies it, the role of a pet becomes all the more critical," said Amanda St. Laurent, with CUPS. "Caring for a pet can provide a sense of normalcy, responsibility, stability, unconditional love and a reason to face a new day."

Jody Graves has two cats and her family loves having the animals around because she says it helps them forget some of the everyday struggles they face.

Graves' animals had never seen a vet before and she says she learned a lot about pet care at the clinics.

"It was great, you could ask them all kinds of questions," said Graves. "They teach you how to feed your pet and how to take care of them so they have long healthy lives. Not a lot of us can afford to take our animals to the vet, so to have them come in and look at all our animals and give them their shots, it was really wonderful."

The students were supervised by UCVM and community veterinarians during the clinics and also spayed or neutered 11 pets at the University’s labs.

The pilot program was so successful that the CUPS partnership will become part of the curriculum for third year veterinary students starting in the fall.

(With files from Kevin Fleming)