Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh (HARP) is one of Pennsylvania’s largest non-profit organizations dedicated to the welfare of animals, pet owners and the community. HARP operates two low-cost, high quality veterinary medical centers. In an average year, over 6,500 animals are treated and more than 7,000 spay and neuter surgeries are performed in these facilities. In addition to caring for domestic animals, the organization remains committed to indigenous species. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is a fully licensed wildlife facility that specializes in caring for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. Annually more than 4,000 injured wildlife of over 100 unique species are admitted and treated by the Center. Among them are more than 2,300 mammals, 1,700 birds and over 50 reptiles.
Our externs rotate through our low-cost clinics, our surgical services (which include HQHV S/N and an array of specialty surgeries), and our kennel services. Also depending on timing of experience, externs can be schedule you to go to one of our mobile clinics offsite that we provide for housing and financially challenged individuals in the area. The main species we see through our shelter are cats, dogs, and rabbits. Less frequently we see chickens, ferrets, guinea pigs, and turtles.
We have an array of programs through our shelter including a medical assistance fund that allows us to help individuals with one-time treatable medical conditions that are out of their financial capabilities to avoid surrender to the shelter (these include foreign bodies, pyometras, amputations etc). We also have a food bank program as well as other resources through our shelter. We can have you rotate through our other departments (behavior, animal care, admissions, adoptions) if that is something you are interested in. Depending on interest, we can also have externs visit our wildlife center with one of our staff veterinarians.
We also see a large amount of forensics, including neglect, abuse, cruelty, hoarding etc. We do a large amount of live forensic exams as well as necropsies.
We currently have three veterinarians on staff, in addition to our Senior Director of Medical Services and our Executive Director. We have approximately 35 veterinary technicians on staff.
The student will be scheduled four 10 hour days each week. The student will be paired with one of our veterinarians on each scheduled day in one of our different services. The amount of hands on surgical experience is determined by previous experience and student interest