UMaine and Foxcroft Veterinary Service Team to Recruit Large Animal Veterinarians to Maine
Contact: Robert C. Causey, (207) 581-2782
ORONO — The University of Maine has successfully teamed up with Foxcroft Veterinary Service in a creative approach for dealing with the shortage of large animal veterinarians in Maine.
In 2007 UMaine’s Maine Agricultural Center funded a study in equine reproduction that was designed to bring veterinary students to Orono for specialized training and to introduce them to local veterinarians. Thanks to this program, Dr. Kristin Williams, and Dr. David Hernke, new graduates of Massachusetts’ Tufts-Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, will start their careers as practicing veterinarians in Dover–Foxcroft.
Dr. Williams responded to an invitation from UMaine veterinarians Jim Weber and Robert Causey to receive training in horse breeding management at the Witter Center in Orono, while also observing practice with Foxcroft Veterinary Service’s Dr Dennis Ruksznis. Before Williams even began her time at Orono, she and Hernke were successfully recruited by Foxcroft Veterinary Services.
“Their coming to Maine means that the area’s large animal owners will now have two more vets available when their animals need attention,” says Prof. Robert Cause of UMaine’s Dept. of Animal Veterinary Sciences. “Because of our partnership with Dr. Ruksznis and his colleagues, these two new Maine veterinarians have gained specific skills and appreciation for the particular needs of those in the area agricultural community.”