As the Associate Dean for Professional Programs at the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine I have oversight of the DVM program as well as being involved in teaching veterinary students.  Our students gain the knowledge, skills and aptitudes to become competent, practicing veterinarians over a number of years and involving a wide variety of experiences.  Even before they enter the DVM program, the average student has spent more than 400 hours in a veterinary practice, observing qualified veterinarians and helping where permitted.  Once in the DVM program, the College provides a rigorous training program aimed at developing skilled, capable veterinarians benefiting a variety of animal species (dogs, cats, horses, cattle, sheep, pigs etc).  

Students undertake skills training in a number of different settings, including on University farms and in our Veterinary Teaching Hospital, as well as in our newly developed Clinical Skills Laboratory (CSL).  In the CSL we use a wide variety of model and mannequins to help students develop the (motor) skills required to perform routine basic procedures, thus enabling them to be far more efficient when they perform these procedures on animals.  This skills training now starts in the first semester of the first year of the program, and continues over the next four years.  However, it has clearly been shown, that the models and mannequins cannot completely replace using animals to develop these skills.  Therefore, enabling students to further practice these procedures, not only when they at the College, but also when observing practice, would result in even more skillful veterinarians for Virginia and Maryland.         

I understand the concerns regarding notification of the animal's owner and fully support the requirement to request client approval before students are able to undertake any procedures on a client's animal.  Interestingly, many clients who bring their animals to our Veterinary Teaching Hospitall prefer to come to our hospital, even though they know that veterinary students will be working on their animals, as they are committed to help train the next generation of veterinarians.  Oversight of the student by experienced veterinarians, should also be a requirement.