Today’s episode explores the important connection between caring for animals and building strong communities. We’re talking about animal welfare and shelter health. When you hear the term animal shelter, you probably already have an idea in mind of what that means. This episode may inspire you to broaden that view in ways that bring more value to both animals and local communities. 

We have on the show Dr. Jyothi Robertson, who is a board certified veterinarian in shelter medicine. She works for Adisa, which does leadership development, professional development, and strategic planning and design for organizations involved in animal welfare and volunteerism. Jyothi also is the chair of the animal welfare committee for the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). She has been consulting in shelter medicine, which is a relatively new field in veterinary medicine, since 2010. 

Also joining us back on the show is Dr. Angela Baysinger, who is the lead for animal welfare on the Veterinary and Consumer Affairs team at Merck Animal Health. Angela works with veterinarians that do technical service work with animal shelters and interacts often with shelter programs, helping with things like training and problem solving. She has a background in animal welfare and is currently pursuing board certification in the field through the American College of Animal Welfare.