With approximately 7.6 million animals entering shelters around the United States each year—around 2.7 million of which are euthanized, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—shelter animal medicine is a hugely important facet of the veterinary field.

The Shelter Medicine Program at Penn Vet approaches the growing crisis by looking at shelter medicine not only in the sheltering facility, but from a wider sociological, economic, and cultural perspective allows for a greater examination of the human-animal bond and link between human and animal health.

We are not just providing medical care to those who need it, we're also interacting with people and doing outreach to try to prevent animals from ever entering the sheltering system in the first place.