The Many Roles of Vets

So one thing we have been learning while recruiting chefs for our book is that chefs do more than cook in restaurants. Some cook for private clients, some work for food companies, some work for caterers and some run their own catering companies. In other words, a culinary degree often opens a lot of different doors.

So too with veterinary medicine, at least according to the latest issue of Bellwether, the magazine of Penn's vet school. They are trying long and hard to make the case that their state funding should be reinstated because of all the things that vets do.

For instance, there is the monitoring of public health in outbreaks of what are called zoonotic diseases--those that can be transmitted from pets to people. Rabies is the obvious example but lot of parasites are also potentially contagious.

Then there is the role of vets in tending to public servants who are animals--like military and police animals, large and small. And caring for endangered species in and out of zoos, as well as monitoring feed lots where our food is raised and slaughtered. Improving the quality of agricultural practices benefits farmers, the animals they raise as well as the consumers who purchase the products.

Not to mention research--especially in areas that have the potential to benefit humans as well as animals. Dare we mention the rabies vaccination?

In short, a degree in veterinary medicine does not mean you have to spay and neuter cats and dogs for a living. There are lots of ways that vets benefit the members of the population who don't even own animals.

I wish them luck in surviving the reduction in their funds and all of us luck if vets are not able to continue to do all the things they contribute to our society.