Shelter education is essential to strengthening Canada’s animal shelter and broader animal-welfare landscape. As organizations across the country face increasing demands—rising intakes, limited resources, and growing public expectations—access to clear, evidence-based training has become a critical foundation for effective, humane care. Shelter workers, volunteers, and community partners need consistent knowledge to navigate issues such as population management, animal behaviour, infectious disease control, and supportive services for both pets and the people who care for them.
Canadian shelters today function as far more than housing facilities. They serve as community hubs, connecting public health, animal protection, social services, and emergency response. This expanding role requires adaptable, well-trained teams who can implement best practices even under challenging circumstances. Without strong educational resources, the sector risks inconsistent standards of care, preventable disease outbreaks, inequitable service delivery, and missed opportunities to keep families and their animals together.
By investing in shelter education, Canada strengthens the capacity, consistency, and resilience of its entire animal-welfare network. Well-informed teams improve outcomes, reduce stress for animals in care, support healthier communities, and drive the profession forward. Ultimately, shelter education ensures that every animal, regardless of circumstance or location, receives the highest standard of care possible.
Online Shelter Medicine Programmes
The Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida offers a unique basket of online Shelter Medicine courses. The ASPCA has also partnered with UF to offer a program in Veterinary Forensics.
These courses are ideal for shelter medicine professionals who want to make the conceptual shift from being “veterinarians in a shelter” to becoming “shelter veterinarians” (or technicians). The cost is quite reasonable, and while the workload is challenging, the programme offers the huge benefit of being able to study at your own pace, in your own time, while continuing your day job. Students also get to “know” and network with many like-minded colleagues and some of the leaders in shelter medicine.
ASPCA/Cornell Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Conference
The popular 2 ½ day annual ASPCA/Cornell Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Conference is held every summer in beautiful Ithaca, NY. It’s within driving distance for many Ontarians. It includes topics of general interest to shelter staff, as well as medical talks for veterinarians and technicians. Many talks are presented by veterinary academics from the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine and veterinarians from the College’s highly-respected Shelter Medicine Program.
Canadian Sheltering and Animal Welfare Conferences
We’re not aware of a Canadian shelter medicine conference or a regular shelter track at a major Canadian veterinary conference – watch this space! Meanwhile, there are several conferences that focus on animal sheltering and welfare and include shelter medicine content:
- Humane Canada‘s annual conference. This recently and successfully revived conference brings together a broad base of SPCAs and Humane Societies from across Canada. It’s an excellent networking and educational experience. At present it alternates between Toronto and Vancouver. The 2016 conference will be in Toronto.
- The annual Ontario SPCA conference focuses on animal welfare, investigations and leadership.
- The Association of Animal Shelter Administrators of Ontario (AASAO) annual conference covers a variety of important subjects, including, in 2015, capacity for care, enrichment, emergency preparedness and crisis management.
American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Annual Symposium
The ABVP now includes a shelter medicine track at its annual symposium, held in the fall of each year. This is a relatively small and very collegial conference and an ideal opportunity to network with other shelter veterinarians and find out more about Board certification in Shelter Medicine.
Shelter Tracks at General Conferences
Several US conferences consistently include shelter medicine tracks. These include: