{"id":50170,"date":"2019-12-02T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T22:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=50170"},"modified":"2024-11-14T17:15:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T22:15:03","slug":"at-austin-community-college-students-and-shelter-pets-grow-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/12\/02\/at-austin-community-college-students-and-shelter-pets-grow-together\/","title":{"rendered":"At Austin Community College, students and shelter pets grow together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Austin American-Statesman:\u00a0At Austin Community College, students and shelter pets grow together<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

By Lara Korte<\/p>\n

ELGIN \u2014 When Tootsie Pop came to Austin Community College a few weeks ago, she was a bit of a \u201chot mess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t walk her on a leash, couldn\u2019t really do anything with her,\u201d recalled Emily Henderson, a first-year student in ACC\u2019s veterinary technician program. \u201cAnd now she walks on just regular leashes. She\u2019s very receptive to training, she loves being pet and touched and talked to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tootsie Pop, a 1-year-old blue heeler mix, is one of the more than dozen shelter animals that Henderson and other students in ACC\u2019s veterinary technician program work with as part of a partnership with local animal shelters. The pets, which come from Bastrop County Animal Shelter, get a chance to acclimate to life outside of a shelter and learn skills that make them more adoptable.<\/p>\n

For the students, having a variety of breeds \u2014 of both cats and dogs \u2014 means better training for life after graduation. Over the course of a semester, the more than 30 students in the program take care of at least a dozen pets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really nice to be able to learn these early skills on these animals that are needing that human attention anyway,\u201d said Regina Bohmfalk, a professor of veterinarian technology at the school. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have that contact. Sometimes it\u2019s as simple as learning how to hold them properly, learning how to walk them on a leash, how to put them on a harness, how to put on an Elizabethan collar: those \u2018cones of shame.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It starts with Bastrop County Animal Shelter workers identifying strays that would be best suited for the program. Then the animals are transferred to ACC\u2019s Elgin campus, where students provide care such as vaccinations, dental work and heartworm prevention, as well as basic training, socialization and playtime.<\/p>\n

Previously, the pets would be returned to the animal shelter. But now, thanks to a recent agreement, animals that aren\u2019t adopted directly from the program (\u201cI\u2019ve taken three myself,\u201d admitted ACC\u2019s Bohmfalk) are transferred to Austin Pets Alive, a no-kill shelter in Travis County, to find their forever homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vet techs here were putting in months of effort and work learning and training with these dogs and returning them to Bastrop. But unfortunately, Bastrop isn\u2019t yet no-kill,\u201d said Katera Berent, public relations and events manager for Austin Pets Alive. \u201cThere is still a chance that those dogs could be euthanized for space reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The animals won\u2019t stay at Austin Pets Alive\u2019s facilities for long, however. Most go straight from the shelter to being adopted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a lot easier for them to get adopted when they\u2019ve had that love and support for so long already,\u201d Berent said.<\/p>\n

Students train for two years to earn their Associate of Applied Science degree in veterinary technology. First year students learn the basics of animal health and care, and second year students progress to helping with surgery procedures.<\/p>\n

All of them get plenty of time to play and socialize with the animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students are walking them two to three times a day,\u201d Baumfalk said. \u201cThey get a lot of human contact, they\u2019re starting to learn skills. We have a lot of our dogs that can give a high-five, and sit and lie down and be really well-behaved dogs before they leave here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berent, with Austin Pets Alive, said she wants people to know that shelter pets need just as much love and attention as any other animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to be loved, they want to have a home, they want to go on walks with you and smile at you and wiggle up to you,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that\u2019s such a big thing to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information about ACC\u2019s adoptable pets can be found at AustinCC.edu\/pets<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Austin American-Statesman:\u00a0At Austin Community College, students and shelter pets grow together By Lara Korte ELGIN \u2014 When Tootsie Pop came to Austin Community College a few weeks ago, she was a bit of a \u201chot … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,15],"tags":[2755,388,3078,3799,386,949,2592],"class_list":["post-50170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acc-in-the-news","category-business-and-community","category-facstaff-news","tag-adopt-our-pets","tag-austin-american-statesman","tag-austin-pets-alive","tag-bastrop-county-animal-shelter","tag-elgin-campus","tag-vet-tech","tag-veterinary-technology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}