UF, Miami-Dade animal shelter partner to teach students

A Miami-Dade animal shelter and UF’s College of Veterinary Medicine are working to provide a partnership that will give students the chance to perform surgery.

Starting in Spring, students can work at the Miami-Dade Animal Services Pet Adoption and Protection Center to learn animal care and disease outbreak as part of a course at the college, said Rowan Milner, the chairman of UF’s Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.

Any student in the college can take the course, but it’ll be required for those working toward certificates in shelter medicine, Milner said. Up to four students can participate for two-week rotations at the shelter in Doral, Florida.

“This is an opportunity for UF students to be in what could be considered one of the country’s best animal shelters,” he said, adding that the shelter’s intake of animals is one of the highest in the U.S.

The new program is similar to an existing partnership with Alachua County Animal Services and the college, but the Miami-Dade partnership will include a surgical component, Milner said.

Rose Worobec, 24, said she heard about the new program while visiting shelters over summer.

“I’ve always had an interest in shelter animals,” the second-year UF veterinary medical sciences master’s student said. “They deserve love as much as any other animal.”

Worobec, who is working toward her certificate in shelter medicine, said her classmates have talked about putting the program on their schedule.

“Everyone is interested,” she said. “There will be a lot of competition.”