Farm animal veterinarians are not “bringing home the bacon” anymore, and the resulting shortage causes a growing concern in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects there will be 28,000 veterinary job openings nationwide by 2012. With only 28 veterinary schools currently operating in the United States, the demand is beginning to exceed the supply.
Dr. Joseph Taboada, associate dean of the college of Veterinary Medicine at the University, said the problem is definitely not a shortage of students.
“We’ve got lots of applicants for the spaces we have, we just don’t have enough seats for those students,” Taboada said.
The Vet School holds a maximum of three classes of 80 students, which is the average capacity for most schools like it in the nation, Taboada said.
“We’ve increased our enrollment and maxed out our facilities, and we’ve shoe-horned a few more students in there. But without bigger facilities, we can’t fit any more,” he said.
On the national level, some schools take action to try and combat the growing shortage. Several schools that have the ability to increase their enrollment numbers have been doing so and at least three new veterinary schools are in the works in California, Nevada and Connecticut.
Some students like Clare Guichard have found alternatives to the overcrowded veterinary school system. Guichard, a former University student, now attends the Royal Dick Veterinary College in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“I was put on the wait list at LSU, and since the Royal Dick Vet is an excellent school and they accepted me, I decided to go there,” she said.
About one third of graduates pursue some advanced field of study beyond vet school. Of the others, Taboada said “about 80 to 85 percent go into small animal, which is much higher than the percent who profess an interest when they began.”
“A lot of these students come from rural areas and start out with plans to return home and practice there, but I see them gravitate toward small animal as they get further along because that’s where the money is,” said Dr. Marjorie Gill, a veterinarian at the University’s large animal clinic and teacher at the school.
Both Gill and Taboada agree debt is a major factor in students’ decisions to pursue small animal practice. According to Taboada, the average debt for the University’s graduating class of 2006 was $88,129, which is lower than the national average. That average is $10,000 higher than in 2005. Some students on the high end of the scale had accrued debts up to $160,000.
The average starting salary for small animal practice is $67,000, while the large animal average is $58,000.
“Some students who normally wouldn’t be deterred by the difference in salary have a debt load that makes the higher salary much more attractive,” Taboada said.
Gill said other factors come into play like the longer hours, the requirement of farm animal vets to live far from cities and the intense physical labor that comes hand-in-hand with large animals.
First year Vet School student Nicole Strauss said her decision to pursue a career in small and exotic animal medicine had very little to do with salary.
“I know that for a lot of people like me, the money isn’t what matters. This is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life,” she said.
Strauss has worked at the Audubon Zoo and as an assistant to a local veterinarian. Her experiences with small and exotic animals was what helped her make the decision.
Strauss said she has already accumulated tremendous debt and will have more by the time she graduates but said she would pursue small animal medicine even if it paid less.
Guichard also offered another possible explanation for the shortage.
“I found the majority of my peers in the U.S. wanted to work with small animals because they wanted to live in cities and not in the country,” she said.
Guichard also said the techniques used with large animals are based on production animal management, while small animal techniques are based on the human-animal bond.
“Some of my friends didn’t want to have to euthanize a herd of cattle just because it would be more cost effective to the farmer than treating them,” Guichard said. “They’d rather have an owner bring in a puppy who would be willing to do a payment plan in order to afford treatment.”
—–Contact Jimmy Garrett at [email protected]