How Swiss trainee vets help the homeless

Vethopes is a unique Swiss project that allows final-year veterinary students to operate on pets belonging to vulnerable people.

The project, which originated at the Vetsuisse vet training faculty at the University of Bern, is the only one in Switzerland to allow final-year students to wield the scalpel. Normally trainees – who study for an average of five-and-a-half years – have to wait until they are qualified to undertake surgery.

Franck Forterre is surgical head of the small animal clinic in the VetsuisseExternal link Faculty, which treats up to 5,000 cats and dogs per year and takes in 70 new trainee vets annually. The neurosurgeon set up the Vethopes project in 2019 to help homeless and disadvantaged people in the city who could not otherwise afford operations on their dogs and cats. Spaying a dog at the clinic would normally cost CHF900 ($941). Under Vethopes, it costs CHF80 ($83), the price of the materials used.

There are schemes in the United States and other parts of Europe that provide mobile vet services for poorer people, but Forterre believes that the Bern project is the only one in the world to open up its state-of-the-art facilities to this group. “Most clients that come to the clinic can afford to pay vet bills. This scheme allows us to help those who can’t, while at the same time as enriching vet training and helping students to become socially engaged,” he said.

In this film, we meet the clients and the students involved. For the trainee vets, it turns out to be a milestone in their education.