Audrey, this is exactly the kind of response I was hoping the thread would pull out, because you are living the thing I can only see from the outside.
You named the two hard edges better than I did. First, the on-site licensing reality: a vaccine clinic without a vet physically present still needs a currently licensed tech, and rabies is the line where that gets really hard. I am running into it right now building a rural wellness clinic in a county where the barrier was never willingness, it was that there is nobody to physically go. Second, and this is the one that stuck with me, you are right that there is no technician specialty in shelter medicine. That absence is why the debate has no unified voice. When the people who do the work cannot point to a recognized credential and a defined scope, somebody else gets to define it for them, usually from the places that already have vets and the least need.
That last part is the trap. The moment expanded tech roles get framed as a turf question in well-served areas instead of an access question in the places vets cannot practically reach, the families who actually need care lose an argument they were never part of. Keeping it on access, on serving where care is desperately needed, is the only framing that holds.
You said you are inspired to get more engaged and better informed. Do it. The field needs techs with shelter expertise shaping this before it ever reaches the level where it gets decided, because if a recognized shelter-medicine specialty and a clear scope for licensed techs already existed, half this fight would be settled. I would like to stay in this conversation as you dig in. If you ever want to compare notes, my calendar is at calendly.com/animal-angels.
Join The Shift To Prevention.
Original Message:
Sent: 06-01-2026 07:50 AM
From: Audrey Summers
Subject: Asking the field: one change you would make, one program you would add
Hi BJ,
As someone working through an accredited online veterinary technician program to become certified, your response also highlights the certified technician shortage as well. For vaccine clinics without a veterinarian physically present on site, any technicians doing this would need to be currently certified/licensed at minimum. Licensed technicians administering rabies vaccines would really be a hurdle, but definitely worth thinking about.
From the vet tech side, this touches on the relentless ongoing issues around tech shortages, living wages, on the job training, utilization, title protection, etc.
I worked as an "unlicensed" technician for years back before online certification programs were up and running, and had they been available, I would have enrolled in one and become licensed.
Now, almost 20 years later and stepping back into the field, even with accredited online programs to supplement the sparse brick and mortar tech schools, the same technicians problems exist and conflict continues around wages, shortages, title protection, etc.
You are exactly right -it is structural. The issue of expanding technicians roles where it makes sense in shelter medicine to meet those needs would be a win-win for everyone. It's hard to see that happening with any kind of broad and practical application when the most basic veterinary technician issues remain contentious and fragmented and vary so much by state and region, as well as among techs, assistants and veterinarians, governing bodies, etc. It's also hard to see the issue becoming not about serving and providing access to care where it's desperately needed and where veterinarians themselves cannot practically physically go -and more about how licensed techs being able to administer vaccines under remote supervision becomes a contentious issue where there are not a lack of veterinarians (even if affordable access to those same vets still is lacking).
There is not currently a technician specialty in shelter medicine, as is the case for so many other fields, which makes it much harder to shape the debate, should it ever reach that level, and have technicians with shelter expertise define a clear and unified position about it the role of licensed technicians in shelter medicine and what it should encompass, and how it might be expanded, etc.
I'm now inspired to become much more engaged and better informed on this.
.Sincerely,
Audrey
Homeward Bound Pets Spay and Neuter Clinic
McMinnville, OR
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Audrey Summers
Volunteer
Homeward Bound
OR
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-31-2026 10:03 AM
From: Bj Adkins
Subject: Asking the field: one change you would make, one program you would add
The vet bottleneck observation is brutal and accurate. The DEA license dependency means the vet holds all the cards in every conversation, and the shelter cannot solve that alone. Five years ago "we need more vets" felt like a solvable supply problem. Now with the projected 15,000 vet shortage by 2030 in the AVMA and Mars Veterinary Health forecasts, it is structural.
On the things-already-opened front, the lay euthanasia certification programs in Maine and a handful of other states are real progress. RAVS-style community vaccination clinics with techs running rabies under remote-supervision protocols is the next frontier and it should not be controversial in counties where there is no vet within a hundred miles. Dr. Delores Gockowski at North Ridge Veterinary in Minnesota laid out the same gap on a thread here a few months back. The rural shelter desert and the vet desert are the same desert.
On dog housing, the long-LOS and kennel-deterioration loop is one of the strongest cases I have seen for foster-first models and co-housing redesigns. Maddie's Fund research on 172 dogs found less behavioral deterioration in the first week when dogs were in playgroups versus solo kennels. Chicago ACC data has playgroup dogs adopting 20 days faster. Austin Pets Alive and KC Pet Project have moved length-of-stay down meaningfully by getting animals out of the building and into homes.
Our angle on this is upstream. If the dog never enters the shelter in the first place, the housing problem gets 80 percent smaller. For the dogs already in care, the apartment-style model you described is exactly where the field needs to push. The kennel has been overdue for an overhaul for a decade.
Happy to compare notes: calendly.com/animal-angels.
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Join The Shift To Prevention.
BJ Adkins
Founder/Director
Animal-Angels Foundation
Pinson, AL
calendy.com/animal-angels
bjadkins@animal-angels.org
animal-angelsfoundation.org
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-31-2026 06:48 AM
From: Anonymous Member
Subject: Asking the field: one change you would make, one program you would add
This message was posted by a user wishing to remain anonymous
Many years ago, an Executive Director said to me: "90% of your job will end up being working around the ego of your vets." She has not been wrong! I have watched and commiserated about veterinarians crossing a lot of really problematic professional boundaries, and because of the never-ending veterinary shortage and our slavish dependency on a DEA license, we are stuck simply enduring it. I cheer on efforts to open up areas of veterinary medicine: things that have already opened up (e.g. euthanasia training for licensed professionals), and hope for many more (administering all vaccines, including Rabies, without a veterinarian). I also hope that the move towards graduating more veterinarians with shelter medicine experience will help.
As for the thing I cannot fund, I think our industry needs to completely overhaul how we house dogs. With our long lengths-of-stay, I think we need to be focused on co-housing dogs in environments that look less like kennels and more like small doggie apartments.