By Cristopher Pineda, Oct. 15, 2024
As a high schooler working to receive my veterinary technician assistant certification, I shadowed a local veterinary clinic. When the owner warned that the setting was ‘very open to political discussion,’ I did not realize this meant racist rhetoric toward Latino immigrants. As a son of Latino immigrants, I felt outnumbered and had no voice in the field. I left shortly after my class was over, never returning to that clinic.
However, I did not give up my dream to get a degree in animal sciences with a pre-veterinary emphasis while applying to veterinary school, and neither should other Latinx people who want to be veterinarians.
It is common to feel isolated in the veterinary field. Even though not considered the whitest job anymore, according to the 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 91.4% of people who hold a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree are white, while only 0.5% are Hispanic or Latinx.
Over 60% of Cal Poly Pomona students in the Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture, that houses the Animal and Veterinary Sciences department, are Latinx. The department is the biggest section of College of Agriculture by 16%. However, seeing the nationwide statistic is discouraging for students in our community.
Even though there is support at CPP for Latino students, the AVS Department needs to reflect the demographics within the school.
Arely Navarro, a Latino CPP alumna and veterinary student at UC Davis, recalls that she had never met a Latino DVM, even though she lived and worked in a primarily Hispanic-serving community.
“All the mentors I had were not people of color,” Navarro said. “That was something I struggled with since they could not connect with struggles I was facing as I first-generation student.”
A lack of veterinary representation impacts people trying to gain access to the veterinary field and the communities they are servicing. There has been a 44% increase in Latino pet owners from 2008 to 2018, according to Packaged Facts.
With Latino animal owners on the rise, veterinarians who are not bilingual look to their supporting staff, such as veterinary technicians, receptionists, assistants and kennel attendants to take on the responsibilities of being translators and taking care of their clients. In different hospitals, I have worked as a kennel attendant and veterinary assistant; I would be the only staff member who was able to speak Spanish at the time. While I happily did so, we need to encourage more supporting staff to seek higher roles in the veterinary field and teach veterinarians to be culturally competent.
Diversity Chair Gabriella Monaco, a Latino veterinary student at UC Davis, noticed that the reason why staff members do not try to gain further schooling to become veterinarians is due to the lack of resources within the veterinary profession.
“I see a lot of our vet techs are Latina girls that could be in vet school,” Monaco said. “They are very underpaid and there is an elitism within veterinary medicine as a lot of knowledge is shielded from technicians, preventing them from moving forward and aspiring to something higher.”
There is a huge barrier that first-generation students, who are usually part of underrepresented groups, face to even apply to veterinary programs, but also to undergraduate schooling. The reason for the lack of minority voices is because we do not have Latinx mentors who know the hardships in our communities and can share the knowledge what steps we should take to get into programs. Latino undergraduate and graduate students need more accessibility, resources and support to see the overall success of students in the veterinary field.
Melissa Pintado, another Latino animal science student working as a veterinary assistant, has heard a lot of demoralizing and racist vocabulary at her workplace that has almost become normalized.
“As one of my friends interviewed for a job at my clinic and told the owner that she wanted to be a vet, the owner responded with ‘Can you even afford it?’”
Getting admitted to veterinary school is notoriously hard, along with gaining aid and support to attend those programs. There are 49 AVMA-accredited schools globally, and 32 reside in the U.S. Contrastingly, there are 159 accredited medical schools in the United States alone. According to the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges, only 10% of applicants are accepted into a veterinary program. According to the 2018 AAVMC data, only a tenth of the applicants were Hispanic/Latinx. This means that Latino students have statistically 1% chance of being accepted into veterinary school.
There have been efforts to encourage more underrepresented groups to gain access to the veterinary profession. Organizations such as Latinx Veterinary Medical Association (LVMA) and Veterinarians as One Inclusive Community for Empowerment (VOICE) have supported students from different backgrounds throughout their education and beyond. Both organizations help elevate diversity through resources on aid, cultural events, mentorship and community.
Cynthia Rosenblatt, a Latino CPP alumna and veterinary student at Midwestern University, restarted her school’s LVMA chapter to spread cultural awareness and build her own community.
“I just gravitated towards the people that look like me,” Rosenblatt said. “We saw the importance of representing in veterinary school and higher education. A third year who was mentoring us mentioned starting the club back up, so we did.”
The national LVMA was established in February 2020 with the aim to increase visibility of Latinx professionals in the veterinary community. The association has also started multiple chapters in the U.S. at various veterinary schools.
Growing up speaking Spanish and in a very culturally diverse area, Yubitza Millot-Audetat, a Latino CPP alumna and veterinary student at Western University of Health Sciences, is part of her school LVMA chapter. Through it, she has embraced her culture even more and wants to help others in her cultural community by educating her fellow Latinx students.
“We are so used to speaking Spanish at home that we don’t really know medical terms in Spanish, so we are left with a bit of disappointment,” Millot-Audetat said. “Our organization is fundraising to provide booklets of Spanish medical terms for all students at my school who are interested, not just Spanish-speaking students, so they can understand and help their clients.”
Located in Pomona WesternU serves a very high Latino population. The university helps with the Street Dog Coalition, providing low-cost pet care through pop-up street clinics in the Los Angeles area. Millot-Audetat mentioned that with the help of the LVMA, she can practice communication to help primarily Spanish-speaking clients get the treatment their pets might need.
While the LVMA has helped create communities with meaningful impacts, there is still a huge amount of prejudice in the field. On Sept. 23 the LVMA held a webinar celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, where individuals infiltrated and displayed obscene and abusive behaviors, disrupting the virtual event. The event was to celebrate and encourage bilingual client communication in Latino communities. The disruption was intended to humiliate and derail the event that was championing inclusion. The LVMA is determined to reschedule and continue to foster these events. Having an issue like this, while we are celebrating our heritage is very demoralizing, but it also shows that representation is still an ongoing battle.
Even though we have seen great strides to promote diversity within the veterinary field, there is still a long way to go. I attended summer programs at two different veterinary schools and experienced life on their campuses. These programs were structured to bring students from underrepresented backgrounds to learn more about the veterinary path and encourage us to seek higher education.
While I am so grateful for these opportunities, looking to the teachers, clinicians, residents, interns and veterinary practitioners, it is still rare to see member of my culture and community in the academia. There is a sense of isolation, I feel like I am trying to look up to people as I don’t see myself in their reflection. I am unable to look up to a mentor who is like myself, but I am also finding it hard to speak to my family about my struggles in the field because even though they support me, they have not been in my shoes.
As I hope to become a veterinarian and have just submitted my application, I want to become part of the 0.5% and help others who feel alone in the veterinary field find the supportive Latinx community.
Feature image courtesy of Unsplash