A Veterinary Specialty Practice Serving San Francisco East Bay Communities
Giving Back to the Community
A love for animals. This is why veterinarians do what they do, why anyone who works with animals everyday does what they do. Combining that love with a dedication to helping creatures who cannot help themselves and a passion for medicine has resulted in a team of veterinary professionals at VIMS who strive to provide the best veterinary care available to their patients. Sometimes love is not enough though. Just like in the human medical field, not every animal who needs and deserves medical treatment has access to it. In an effort to improve the lives of those animals who have no human benefactor, Dr. Hamilton has taken it upon herself to seek out worthy causes to donate her time, fund raising efforts and her medical expertise to. With her volunteer efforts, dedicated team of veterinary technicians and Western Veterinary College students, Dr. Hamilton has made a difference in the lives of hundreds of animals from California to Arkansas and many points in between. Here are the stories.
Love for Sale: Puppy Mills and Their Cast-Offs
Internet purchase of Puppy Mill
produced puppies is a huge business. In the past decade, unscrupulous Puppy
Mill Breeders have discovered that the Internet is a fast and easy way to
sell the massive number of dogs that they produce every year. As pet store
purchase of puppies in the state of California is decreasing, direct
purchase of puppies from puppy mills via the Internet is increasing. With
endless pages filled with photos of The Perfect Puppy, fairytale
descriptions of a nonexistent loving home environment the puppies are raised
in and the ease and speed of ‘Point, Click and Buy it Now’, the Internet
is allowing Puppy Mills to not just exist, but thrive. The reality is a
tidal wave of genetically compromised and most often medically and mentally
unsound puppies sold at a premium price, shipping not included. The
intentionally hidden and consequentially overlooked byproduct of those
adorable puppies advertised and sold are the over-bred and unwanted
“breeding stock” from which they were produced; always emotionally
deprived and most often in desperate need of medical care.
After noticing an increase in
seriously ill Internet acquired puppies presented at VIMS, Dr. Hamilton felt
the need to not only help as many dogs as she could, but to increase public
awareness of this serious problem. Dr. Hamilton organized a Rescue Team of
veterinary technicians (and herself) to attend a kennel dispersal auction in
Arkansas and bring back as many unloved, unwanted “breeding stock dogs”
as her fund raising efforts could afford for veterinary evaluation and
placement in loving homes. Only a kennel dispersal sale was attended, as she
specifically did not wish to contribute money to active Puppy Millers. One
technician drove 28 hours to the auction in a borrowed cargo van with
crates, bedding, food and various medical supplies donated by MWI and the
Purina company. Dr. Hamilton
and her remaining team of veterinary technicians flew to Arkansas to
rendezvous with the cargo van. Together, the Rescue Team attended the dog
auction and purchased 71 various breeds of dogs with the donated money.
Donated funds were used solely for the acquisition of the cast-off dogs.
Airfare, accommodations and travel costs were provided by donated frequent
flier miles and out-of-pocket by the rescue team. Because of the large
number of dogs the team was able to acquire, and the limited space available
in the van destined to return to California, approximately half of the dogs
were sent south to Florida with Sanctuary Animal Rescue. The remaining 49
dogs and 3 veterinary technicians were safely tucked into the van and
brought back to Dr. Hamilton’s clinic for medical evaluation and
treatment. After an initial vetting by Dr. Hamilton and several other area
veterinarians who donated their time and services to the project, the dogs
were turned over to various local breed rescues who had volunteered to
rehabilitate, foster and eventually permanently place the dogs in loving
homes.
Above and beyond immediately
impacting the lives of the 71 individual dogs rescued from the dooming fate
of a life spent behind the bars of a Puppy Mill, Dr. Hamilton wanted to make
a difference for the hundreds of thousands of dogs present and future that
she could not directly help by directing media attention to the dirty little
secret of the Internet Pet Industry: Online Puppy Mill Sales. Interviews
with local television news teams, radio shows and notably a journalist from
the San Francisco Chronicle helped to raise public awareness and hopefully
decrease at least local demand for Internet puppies.
Local Puppy Mill Rescue Media Story
“Please take with great care….”
Times
are hard, the economy is down. For the past several years animal shelters
have seen an alarming upswing of abandoned pets as a result of the massive
numbers of foreclosures and increasingly unemployed pet owners. Many pets
are dropped off at city animal shelters where they are given a limited
amount of time to be adopted before they are sadly euthanized. The lucky
ones find safe haven with no-kill organizations like Town Cats of Morgan
Hill. Over the years Town Cats, a no-kill cat shelter founded in 1997, has
saved the lives of over 10,000 surrendered and rescued kitties. Every cat
accepted to the shelter is either adopted out to a carefully screened new
home or allowed to live out their lives under the careful watch of countless
caring volunteers at the Town Cats facility.
TownCats and VIMS volunteer efforts
VIMS volunteer group treats 165 TownCats residents