Expanding Educational Program
April 5, 2016
I
n mid-March, our Animal Curator, Emily McCormack, visited the University of Georgia Athens. She made the long trip to the college, so that she could give a presentation to the Veterinary Students Animal Welfare Club, and Exotics Club. Her goal was to help educate these students and teach them about not only Turpentine Creek but also the plight of all captive exotic animals in the USA.
“I was Honored to be asked to speak. It really brought awareness to the Vet School that is top notch for exotics. After the presentation, there were 20, or more, people waiting in line to talk to me. I learned a lot,” Emily said about the trip.
Emily had to add to and revamp an existing presentation for the veterinary students. She had a lot of material to work with. Most Zoos only have around 5 tigers while Turpentine Creek has ten times – if not closer to twenty times- that number.
“The variety of veterinary situations, of illnesses and diseases, that we have seen here far surpasses other places. Putting all that into presentation was amazing. A lot of the situations were jaw dropping,” Emily said.
This is just the first step in our educational outreach expansion. Our goal is to eventually send individuals to give presentations to many different college or university in the country upon request. With our new Veterinary Hospital nearly completed, we plan to eventually expand our intern program to include Veterinary interns.
We hope to not only use our new Veterinary Hospital for optimal care for our animals but also let upcoming Veterinarians gain the experience they need.
Though presentations, such as this one, at schools that have not only biology degrees but veterinary degrees we hope to raise awareness and eventually make a veterinary extern program as well known and respected as our internship program already is.
To make Veterinary externships possible it will take a lot of research into the laws in Arkansas, it might take a few years but we plan to do what we can to find ways to best use the Veterinary Hospital that you helped us build at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge.