Ontario vet groups aim to increase diversity within the field

Veterinary doctors and advocates say they're looking to increase diversity within the field through outreach programs and bursaries for young students.

Only 1.9 per cent of veterinarians who responded to a 2023 Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OVMA) survey of 503 veterinarians identified as Black, while 1.7 per cent identified as Indigenous and 19 per cent as racialized. That same year, there were roughly 5,725 vets in the province, per the Canadian Medical Veterinary Association.

"Part of why we did our research was recognizing that it is a very white profession and looking at how do we make it more inclusive," said OVMA Chief Experience Officer Terra Shastri.

"Representation doesn't happen by accident," she said. "It really takes intentional effort."

The results indicate that racialized groups are underrepresented in veterinary medicine professions. Statistics Canada census results show Black Ontarians make up over five per cent of the population, while Indigenous people make up nearly three per cent and 34 per cent are racialized.

While there isn't definitive data on why exactly the field lacks diversity, OVMA's survey found "there could be a number of possible factors, like lack of visible role models in the profession, limited early exposure to veterinary careers, or financial barriers," Shastri said.

She says OVMA is supporting recruitment efforts by encouraging vets to visits schools with diverse demographics and through the introduction of three high school bursaries for students from marginalized communities to help reduce the financial burden of pursuing a career in veterinary medicine.

"It's early days right now, but we're committed to making veterinary medicine more welcoming and representative of the communities that we serve," she said.

For some students, all it takes is one interaction with the right person, says Dr. Keisha Harris, a veterinarian and co-founder of the Canadian VIBE Network, a non-profit organization with a directory of Black professionals that offers mentoring opportunities.

"One conversation really just completely switched my life," Harris said. "Some of the biggest things are just exposure, just being able to see yourself being represented in it … I could only imagine if I had that even earlier in my career or in high school, that would have been so phenomenal to know I'd be supported, that I could do so much with it."

Harris founded her organization in 2020 while she was studying at the Ontario Veterinary College Health Sciences Centre at the University of Guelph. Harris says she was one of two Black students in a class of over 100 people.

"It kind of felt very alienating," Harris said, explaining that she started VIBE as a place for people with similar experiences to come together, a way to address and prevent the "large burden" of mental health issues among veterinary students and practitioners.

Since then, she says, the group has teamed up with other associations to put on outreach and educational programs for students. 

VIBE was one of the sponsors of an event at the Centre of Excellence for Black Student Achievement in Scarborough last week. Students had the chance to perform veterinary tasks, such as physical examinations of small pets and dogs, while also learning about different specializations, including surgery, large animal care and shelter medicine. 

Exploring the field in a hands-on way is crucial for students since many children know from a young age that they want to be a veterinarian or might enjoy the work, says Dr. Niccole Bruno, a small animal veterinarian and the CEO of blendVET, a veterinary certification program in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

"Walking them through these different pathways allows them to not only experience what is done specifically in that specialty, but they also meet someone sometimes that looks just like them," Bruno said.

Increasing diversity within veterinary medicine has practical benefits, she says, such as providing the language skills or the right cultural or religious knowledge to tend to clients' needs.

"Being able to communicate effectively and with empathy to a client is DEI, and that is why it's so important."