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Welcome to the ShelterMedPortal,

Your Gateway to Professional Growth in Animal Sheltering!

Free #ThankstoMaddie and the Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge.

Shelter Learniverse Has a New Home

At the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, we’re dedicated to supporting you in your work within the animal sheltering industry. As part of the Maddie’s Million Pet Challenge, we proudly re-introduce the Shelter Learniverse in it’s new home – shelterlearniverse.com.

Explore our new home and discover how we can assist you in your work and career.

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Shelter Care Specialist Certification

The Koret Shelter Medicine Program recognizes the profound Access to Care challenges faced by animal shelters across the nation. To bridge this gap, we are excited to introduce our new certification program aimed at elevating the expertise and readiness of frontline shelter team members. Our Shelter Care Specialist Certification Program is designed to address the challenges associated with access to care in shelters by empowering shelter staff with comprehensive training that extends to medical care, best practices in shelter operations, animal shelter population management, and behavior, training and enrichment for animals in shelters.

Introducing our Shelter Care Specialist Certification Program: a game-changing professional development program for shelter team members. Elevate your professional skills and credentials, positioning yourself for a fulfilling career in animal welfare. Learn more now!

Self-Paced Learning

Check out our bite-sized, self-paced, on-demand learning options to help you level up in your current job and prepare for future opportunities in the animal welfare industry. Dive in now!

Shelter Industry Events Calendar

Go to the animal sheltering's most-used calendar of upcoming in-person and online events from across the industry.

Shelter Medicine Resource Library

Visit sheltermedicine.com's resource library for answers to your shelter medicine questions.

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Sheltermedicine.com

Visit sheltermedicine.com for more information about the programs and services offered by the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Recently Announced Upcoming Industry Events

Building Collective Momentum: Strategies to Increase Transfers and Adoptions

Webinar – 2/27/25 – Building Collective Momentum: Strategies to Increase Transfers and Adoptions  – Best Friends

Best Friends Presents: Join us for a discussion on how strategic transfer partnerships and open adoption practices can boost our collective impact and save more lives. Hear from panelists with expertise leading both open intake and limited intake organizations. Suzette Cruz, Executive Director at Palm Valley Animal Society, and Jess Bridges, Shelter Operations Manager at Peninsula SPCA, will share their best strategies for starting and maintaining strong transfer and/or transport partnerships, as well as maximizing community adoptions.

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Camp Maddie: Kitten Edition 2025

Online Event – 3/18/25 – Camp Maddie: Kitten Edition – Live Q&A Follow Up Session – Maddie’s Fund

Maddie’s Fund Presents: Prepare for Kitten Season with expert guidance! Join us in this follow live question and answer session. This will provide time for your team to catch up on any sessions they may have missed from Camp Maddie Kitten’s first day on March 4th, to browse the extensive collection of supporting documents, protocols, and forms, and to bring forward any remaining questions and obstacles encountered in enhancing your kitten programs.

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All Call

Online Event – 1st and 3rd Tuesdays – All Call – California for All Animals

California for All Animals Presents: The one-hour call is a dedicated space to share and learn from each other. Popular topics include initiatives that create a more inclusive culture for both staff and community, programs that keep pets with their people, industry trends, research studies, as well as the hard stuff, like what’s not working or what is particularly difficult during times of scarcity.

Read More »
All Call

Online Event – 1st and 3rd Tuesdays – All Call – California for All Animals

California for All Animals Presents: The one-hour call is a dedicated space to share and learn from each other. Popular topics include initiatives that create a more inclusive culture for both staff and community, programs that keep pets with their people, industry trends, research studies, as well as the hard stuff, like what’s not working or what is particularly difficult during times of scarcity.

Read More »
All Call

Online Event – 1st and 3rd Tuesdays – All Call – California for All Animals

California for All Animals Presents: The one-hour call is a dedicated space to share and learn from each other. Popular topics include initiatives that create a more inclusive culture for both staff and community, programs that keep pets with their people, industry trends, research studies, as well as the hard stuff, like what’s not working or what is particularly difficult during times of scarcity.

Read More »
All Call

Online Event – 1st and 3rd Tuesdays – All Call – California for All Animals

California for All Animals Presents: The one-hour call is a dedicated space to share and learn from each other. Popular topics include initiatives that create a more inclusive culture for both staff and community, programs that keep pets with their people, industry trends, research studies, as well as the hard stuff, like what’s not working or what is particularly difficult during times of scarcity.

Read More »

Online Event – 4/1/25 – All Call – California for All Animals

California for All Animals Presents: Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to engage all members of our communities. Partnering for Pets, a Multicultural Community of Practice, is coming to the All Call to strengthen our capacity to do just that. Are you passionate about increasing adoptions, foster, return to home, and keeping more pets and people together? Do you want to learn and share practical strategies for building relationships with diverse communities? This community is for you!

Read More »
Clear the Air: Assessing and Improving Indoor Air Quality in Animal Shelters

Webinar – 2/19/25 – Clear the Air: Assessing and Improving Indoor Air Quality in Animal Shelters – UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program

UCD KSMP Presents: We can’t see the air around us, but we know it’s an important factor in the health and well-being of animals and people. How can you measure ventilation? What is a MERV rating? Is that air purifier in the cat ward helping? Join us for answers to your biggest questions, plus practical recommendations on currently available tools to improve air quality—including some promising new technology. Your questions will lead the way: Submit them when you register.

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Online Event – 3/18/25 – All Call: Fostering Community Support through Social Work in Animal Sheltering – California for All Animals

California for All Animals Presents: Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to engage all members of our communities. Partnering for Pets, a Multicultural Community of Practice, is coming to the All Call to strengthen our capacity to do just that. Are you passionate about increasing adoptions, foster, return to home, and keeping more pets and people together? Do you want to learn and share practical strategies for building relationships with diverse communities? This community is for you!

Read More »
MMPC and Thanks to Maddie logos

Maddie’s® Million Pet Challenge is dedicated to helping communities build programs to keep families and their pets together, improve outcomes for all shelter pets, and assure that pets who already have families will receive the care they need. With the support of Maddie’s® Fund, UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program, the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at UF, Open Door Veterinary Collective, and Team Shelter USA will mentor shelters and veterinary practices to deliver access to care through humane, community-centric programming both inside and outside of the shelter, and to achieve the right outcome for every pet.