Local Animal Shelter Wants To Reinstate Partnership With Local Community College
POLKTON, N.C. – “It was a great program,” says Anson Co. Animal Shelter Director Maureen Lett. And if she gets her wish, that great program will be back. She is talking about the vet assistant program the shelter partnered with South Piedmont Community College on from 2016 to 2018. “It’s a big need,” she says, of veterinarian work employees.
Under the program, vet assistant program students worked at the shelter learning everything. “Just all aspects of what we do here in the shelter,” says Lett. The students got experience, and the shelter got help. The program ended, but no one is sure why. Lett wants it back as part of a bigger picture plan.
She explains, “The second-year students could do their clinical hours, helping a vet, or a couple vets, on a spay/neuter mobile unit and that would give people access to low-cost (animal care) here in Anson County.”
But.
The shelter doesn’t have a mobile spay/neuter clinic, yet.
Right now, Lett and shelter workers drive from Polkton to Charlotte or Concord once a week to get 13 animals fixed every visit. That’s about 50 a month. If they had the mobile unit? Lett says they could do, “Probably a hundred.” That’s double the animals spayed or neutered.
Where does the money for a mobile clinic come from? Enter: Petco. WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty checked and Petco is in the middle of an open grant cycle. Lett has a grant application in process. Petco tells WCCB, in part, “We have been supporters of this organization for several years and welcome the opportunity to consider their request.”
Fogarty checked with SPCC, too. They see the need for the vet assistant program, and tell WCCB, “We would welcome partnerships with community organizations to bring a veterinary assistant program to the college.” Lett says, “I think that would be a godsend, to not only us, but people here in the community.”
Lett is working on that grant, and she’s getting in touch with decision makers at SPCC. The college prioritizes programs that fill job market needs and there is a need for these vet assistance jobs. We will keep you posted.
