Most veterinarians are white. A new program plans to train Black vets. [View all]

When Kaila Tyree-Castro was 13, her pet geckos got sick. The closest vet was an hour away from her Bowie, Maryland, home and didn't have an appointment available for two weeks.

Tyree-Castro, now 19, felt helpless as she watched her lizards get sicker and then pass away.

That episode left her wanting to become a veterinarian herself ‒ and now, as a first-generation college student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, hoping to join the inaugural class at her university's planned new veterinary school.

Last month, UMES received state approval to create a school of veterinary medicine that will become just the second among the nation's more than 100 historically Black colleges and universities. Tuskegee University in Alabama has the only other veterinary school in the country's historically Black universities and there are fewer than three dozen veterinary programs in the entire U.S.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2024/02/19/umes-black-vet-school/71968850007/

I knew about Tuskeegee from watching "Critter Fixers" and "The Vet Life" but I didn't know it was the only one. I also didn't know there was such a dearth of vet programs. No wonder you can't get an appointment!