Our mission is to lead collaborative veterinary response efforts to provide exceptional and compassionate care to animals and their families during disasters.
Born of dedicated lawmakers, concerned disaster responders, and a passionate, caring public, the California Veterinary Emergency Team (CVET) helps to rescue animals in disasters wherever they strike in the state of California. The program, administered by the UC Davis One Health Institute (OHI) within the School of Veterinary Medicine, supports and trains a network of government agencies, individuals and organizations to aid domestic animals and livestock during emergencies.
The OHI has been the administrative home of the immensely successful Oiled Wildlife Care Network, created in 1994 through a partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to mobilize volunteers and professionals to rescue and treat wildlife that are injured during oil spills. This has been accomplished by partnering with more than 45 organizations throughout the state that agree to work cooperatively between and during oil spills to provide the best available capture and care to oil-affected animals. This public-private partnership has developed the capacity, knowledge, systems and processes to give California a first-of-its-kind, best-in-class, emergency response organization for wildlife in need of response. By adopting this successful template, CVET is similarly becoming a model for response to natural disasters whenever and wherever they may occur.