Our mission is to lead collaborative veterinary response efforts to provide exceptional and compassionate care to animals and their families during disasters.
From an identified need of a coordinated approach to veterinary care during disasters, dedicated lawmakers, concerned disaster responders, and a passionate, caring public advocated for the development of CVET to provide veterinary care to 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 household and domestic animals and livestock during emergencies. CVET has a memorandum of understanding in place with the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to oversee veterinary care throughout the state during disasters. In addition, CVET also has memoranda of agreement with the California Veterinary Medical Reserve Corps (CAVMRC) and the Northern Association of Equine Practitioners (NCAEP) to provide a collaborative response effort of veterinary professionals during disasters.
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.