Animal organization looks to bring emergency animal hospital to Las Cruces
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KFOX14) — An animal organization is looking to bring a 24/7/365 emergency animal hospital to Las Cruces and its surrounding areas.
The organization is called Animal Companions of Las Cruces and was founded in August 2021 by Dawn Duncan.
Currently, in the unfortunate event that pets are injured or become sick after business hours or on weekends, Las Cruces pet owners have to travel 50 miles; one hour to El Paso for emergency veterinary services.
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Many times critically injured or ill pets don't survive the hour-long trip to El Paso or once there, the many hours waiting to be examined by a veterinarian.
The two emergency veterinary clinics in El Paso are seriously understaffed, which accounts for the long waiting times.
“Back in 2018 there was emergency care here in Las Cruces, but that broke down during COVID. But we are the second-largest city in New Mexico and all of southern New Mexico needs 24/7 emergency care," said Duncan.
“We will very soon have a TeleVet service that will assist our vets and pet owners. Our TeleVets could handle 80 percent of the calls that come in after hours. The other 20 percent of those animals really need to be seen. We're going soon to invite our vets to a free webinar about the televet service, asking that they only agree to see their clients if called in at a particular time for that 20% who need to be seen in person." said Duncan.
Animal Companions said their goals are to:
- Support a Televet Triage Call Line for After Hours
- Recruit Veterinarians to the Community
- Advocate for Vet Tech Licensing and Educational Programs Leading to Licensure
- Seek Funding to Assist with Achieving Our Goals
Animal Companions said they are working with veterinarians to recruit vets to come to the region due to the veterinarian shortage across the country.
Animal Companions are a non-profit under the fiscal sponsorship of the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico.
Visit their website for more information.
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