 Hello, my name is Victoria Riles and I'm the Animal Services Superintendent for the City of Columbia. I want to thank you for tuning in today as we highlight some of our programs here at Columbia Animal Services and introduce a few of our life-saving team members. We hope you enjoy this short segment and find out how you too can be a part of life-saving. Here at Columbia Animal Services we provide many medical and behavioral treatments for animals that come through our doors. Most of them come through with strays and we don't have any background on them medically or behaviorally. In addition we have a lot of animals to deal with at the same time with high population density which can be stressful to animals. What we provide we give them vaccinations, a heart room test, deworming. We see a lot of animals coming in off the street through animal control or through private citizens or phone calls of animals that are injured or stray such as having been hit by a car or were found sick or injured in other ways but also animals that have been severely neglected and abused. We take those animals in and provide a immediate emergency treatment which could mean hospitalization with IV catheters or specialized surgeries to provide care such as an amputation of some sort. As a shelter veterinarian we have a lot of challenges that are different from private practice. In private practice we're focusing on the individual animal. A person brings in their animal and we focus on the problem. However in a shelter not only do we have to focus on each individual but we have an entire population of animals who may be dealing with disease outbreaks or behavior issues, issues with being confined. So we have to understand parasitology and epidemiology and disease control on a different level than in general practice. We're going to see things that you're not going to normally see in general practice and have to deal with things again on that population control like herd health but also the individual and not only are we dealing with the physical medical needs of animals but we have a lot of behavioral needs. A lot of animals come to us without having had an ideal background or training. Perhaps they have issues with fear or aggression. We bring these animals into help and then they're in an environment that is stressful with a lot of other animals around. So we have to use our skills as shelter veterinarians and the entire team to ensure we're providing the best possible care to ensure not only do we have no suffering under these walls physically from a physical ailment but also behaviorally and mentally. So luckily as a shelter veterinarian we can provide physical treatment, infections and pain but also behavioral treatment medications and our behavior team and trainers to address specific needs of individual dogs who are struggling with being in this environment. We are very fortunate that we're able to provide forensic consultations and forensic workups for animals that come in through the shelter. For instance an animal may come in from a very neglectful situation. It's very skinny, it's skin and bones, perhaps it has an embedded collar. Some signs of having been neglected by somebody and if we know who the owner is we will be pursuing criminal charges against them and what that means is I'm able to provide as a forensic veterinarian with my background of having had training and forensics of proper documentation and treatment but also being able to translate the animal's pain and suffering into legal terms which allows us to prosecute in the courtroom. In addition I'm able to go and serve as an expert witness in the courtroom for these cases which gives us a much higher chance of providing justice for these animals that have been abused and neglected in our own community. Thank you again for tuning in and learning what we're doing over here at Columbia Animal Services. We'd love to have you be a part of any of our programs whether it be foster, volunteer, rescue or engagement on a daily basis. Please reach out to us via our social media platforms on Facebook, Columbia Animal Services and Instagram, Columbia Animal Services to find out what's going on and how you can be a part of the fun.