KALISPELL – An animal shelter in the Flathead has been selected to take part in a prestigious pilot program to further advance veterinary care.
Flathead County Animal Shelter has been gaining national attention in their field for its unique combination of having a short length of stay and a high life release rate.
The shelter is also known for adopting cutting-edge technologies developed by leading shelter medicine research facilities.
Last week the shelter announced it was one of only four shelters selected among seven states from the Northern Tier of the United States to be accepted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison Shelter Medicine Program’s Northern Tier Shelter Fellowship Program.
The program was created to provide shelter leadership staff with additional training to help them deliver life-saving knowledge and services to our nation’s homeless pets.
Cliff Bennett, who has been the shelter’s director for more than eight years, says it’s an honor to receive such an invitation and it’s going to be a great benefit to the cats and dogs of the Flathead community.
"It will allow us to work closer with, probably, the top shelter medicine people and it should make our shelter better and our animals more comfortable," Bennett said. "We like to be on the cutting edge of what the latest techniques and tips are."
Bennett says he’ll be spending a few days in June on the Madison campus in intensive trainings and he says plans to bring that knowledge back and share the advanced shelter care practices with other shelters in Montana. Training and travel is made possible by a grant.
