SLV Animal Welfare Forum is scheduled for Nov. 7 (10-24-07)
A San Luis Valley Animal Welfare Forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7 in the Adams State College Carson Auditorium. Deborah Zardeneta, Adams State College Spanish instructor, organized the event.
"My decision to put together this forum was initiated by the many animals I have personally rescued," Zardeneta said.
The forum will educate and inform the public while promoting neglect prevention techniques and will supply names and numbers of animal welfare organizations in the area.
The keynote speaker for the event is Dr. Jeffrey Young, a 1989 graduate of the Colorado State University School of Veterinary Medicine. Young established Planned Pethood Plus, Inc. (PPP), in 1990, the organization is best know for its low-cost mobile neutering services, Native American Reservation work, and training of veterinarians from around the world in more efficient surgical techniques.
Young has served on numerous Humane Society boards and has been an advisor for mobile surgical units all across America. He recently founded his own non-profit group called Planned Pethood International, established to help fund spay/neuter work and veterinary training from its new state-of-the-art veterinary hospital in Bratislava, Slovakia. Planned Pethood International is also actively working in Mexico and will build a veterinary hospital in Merida, Mexico.
Young said he believes his humane ethic comes from being an Animal Control Officer during his veterinary college training. "I am proud of having personally sterilized over 130,000 animals in the last fifteen years," he said. Young said he is driven by a simple underlying mission "to significantly reduce companion animal overpopulation through-out the world."
Other speakers will include Robert Jackson, support services commander of the Alamosa Police Department; Dr. Curtis Crawford, Alpine Veterinary Hospital; Dr. Robert Steffens, Alamosa Valley Vet Clinic; Diana Hamilton, director of the Valley Humane League; Dr. Frank Peek, San Luis Animal Welfare Society; and Janet Black, co-president of ALPHA Humane Rescue.
By Linda Relyea
