Email us if you’d like us to add any other shelter education courses or conferences!

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: